Little Britain has been restored to BBC iPlayer with a blackface character removed from the show after controversy over the sketches in 2020.
The BBC and Netflix took down Matt Lucas and David Walliams’s comedy series as the anti-racism movement gathered momentum following the death of George Floyd in the US. Its iPlayer hiatus was ended on Wednesday morning but the corporation said the programme had been edited to reflect modern audience expectations.
The third series no longer features Desiree DeVere, a character played by Walliams in black makeup and a fat suit. DeVere was a love rival to Bubbles DeVere, played by Lucas, and the pair would often appear naked on the show.
Other controversial characters avoided the chop, including Walliams’s Emily Howard and Maggie Blackamoor, a member of the Women’s Institute who projectile vomits when her racist and homophobic views are challenged.
The BBC said: “Little Britain has been made available to fans on BBC iPlayer following edits made to the series by Matt and David that better reflect the changes in the cultural landscape over the last 20 years since the show was first made.”
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Lucas and Walliams have expressed regret at their blackface sketches and apologised when Little Britain was removed from streaming services two years ago.
“If I could go back and do Little Britain again I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters,” Lucas told The Big Issue in 2017. “Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now.”
Research last year by Ofcom, the media regulator, found differing views among audiences on the use of blackface in archive programmes. Some people said that comedies such as Carry on Cleo could still be shown, arguing that the inclusion of white actors in black makeup was acceptable at the time and was not intended to offend.
Younger viewers said the device was troubling because it perpetuated outdated racist views. They added that blackface https://www.thetimes.com/article/tv-channel-faces-ofcom-inquiry-over-blackface-in-1970s-comedy-fxb5dr00v was never acceptable on television.
The BBC has previously shown that it is prepared to make cuts to old programmes. The Times revealed in January that the BBC was editing classic radio comedies, such as repeats of shows including Dad’s Army, Steptoe and Son and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again on BBC Radio 4 Extra, to remove racially insensitive and politically incorrect jokes.
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Little Britain ran for three seasons on the BBC between 2003 and 2005, while Little Britain Abroad, a two-part Christmas special, aired in 2006. It spawned memorable characters and catchphrases including Lucas’s fast-talking Vicky Pollard and Daffyd, the self-proclaimed “only gay in the village”.
