Years ago I did some work in London for Chinese TV. We were banned from showing the Houses of Parliament because the whole concept of a democratic legislature was “politically sensitive”.

You are either mistaken or lying. You were not allowed to film the Houses of Parliament because the UK government does not permit commercial or non-commercial filming in or of the Houses of Parliament.

The number of non-BBC productions granted permission to film an event at the Houses of Parliament since the invention of film recording can be counted on one hand. Under UK law, news and other productions are required to license footage from a UK government organization called UK Parliament TV, which is hosted at https://www.parliamentlive.tv/