The BBC has eliminated sketches from outdated episodes of Chewin’ The Fats to keep away from offending fashionable audiences.
The hit Scottish comedy sequence has been re-edited for repeat showings to take out any materials deemed too controversial.
Chewin’ The Fats launched the careers of Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill who went on to write down sitcom Nonetheless Recreation.
Their co-star Karen Dunbar, 50, found the present she appeared in had fallen foul of the censors whereas filming a brand new documentary on comedy in immediately’s woke world.
Scottish comedy Chewin’ The Fats has been re-edited for viewers for repeat displaying on BBC
She was proven how choices have been made on what to chop from the present earlier than a repeat was broadcast final 12 months.
Talking on the Cultural Coven podcast, she mentioned: ‘As a part of the documentary we went right down to the BBC in London the place they edit the repeats.
‘The week we went down Chewin’ The Fats was going to be repeated on the weekend so that they introduced up sketches they usually have been asking me if I believed it was going to be stored or cancelled.
‘The BBC evaluation each repeat that goes out and can take out the bits that are not acceptable immediately.
Sketches have been from performers and writers Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar
BBC’s woke warnings
The BBC have hooked up an ‘offensive language’ warning on iPlayer episodes of traditional jail sitcom Porridge.
The BBC have hooked up an ‘offensive language’ warning on iPlayer episodes of traditional jail sitcom Porridge.
The programme revolves round protagonist Norman Stanley Fletcher, performed by Ronnie Barker, serving time on the fictional HM Jail Slade in Cumberland with cellmate Lennie Godber, performed by Richard Beckinsale.
It has additionally slapped warnings on episodes of Blackadder and The Contemporary Prince of Bel Air due to jokes which viewers could discover offensive.
Blackadder, first aired in 1983, makes use of a slur in its second episode which the BBC determined warrants the warning.
The Contemporary Prince of Bel Air’s Reunion episode, filmed final 12 months, additionally comprises a warning firstly of the present.
The message says: ‘Comprises discriminatory language which some viewers could discover offensive.’
The Royle Household has additionally been given a warning for discriminatory language in an episode together with Jim Royle utilizing a ‘nancy boy’ slur.
The third episode of the second sequence, which first aired on sees Ricky Tomlinson’s character Jim watching Altering Rooms, throughout which he calls Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen a ‘nancy boy’.
‘The results of that was Chewin’ The Fats went out on the Saturday however it went out with bits taken out of it that may have been within the unique 20 years earlier than it.’
Among the materials which was deemed unacceptable can be revealed within the documentary Karen Dunbar: The Comedy of Offence which is ready to air later this 12 months.
Chewin’ The Fats began out as a radio present and later ran for 4 sequence on tv between 1999 and 2002.
It featured characters corresponding to Dunbar’s randy Auld Betty, the chain-smoking household who use voice bins and an notorious scene involving an feminine ice-cream van employee lifting her skirt as much as two younger boys.
The present has been frequently repeated on the BBC Scotland channel because it launched in 2019.
Final 12 months, Kiernan, 60, mentioned he did not assume Chewin’ The Fats could be made immediately as a result of it will be deemed too offensive.
He mentioned: ‘Plenty of the stuff on Chewin’ The Fats stuff you could not get away with now.
‘The likes of Karen pulling her skirt up I do not assume you would do.
;We did get letters on the time and someone wrote in and mentioned “As humorous because the nation thought that sketch was, would that sketch work if it was two wee lassies on the van and it was a person?”
‘Me and Greg went “No it would not be as humorous’.
‘So the purpose was made “Do not write any extra sketches like that” so we did not.
‘One other factor is soiled Auld Betty.
;You could not have her on the telly now.’
In 2020 the BBC eliminated episodes of Little Britain and Fawlty Towers from streaming companies over fears of inflicting offence.
A BBC spokesperson mentioned: ‘The BBC frequently critiques older content material to make sure it meets present viewers expectations. That is a part of our course of when repeating archive content material together with comedy.’
Final 12 months censors slapped an offensiveness warning on traditional ‘Allo ‘Allo episodes in case viewers are upset by characters taking the mickey out of French and German accents.
The BBC comedy, which ran from 1982 to 1992, coined a mess of catchphrases that proved standard for many years.
‘Good Moaning’, uttered fully straight by French policeman Officer Crabtree, continues to be broadly supplied as a greeting almost 30 years after Cafe René closed its doorways for the final time.
The BBC have additionally hooked up an ‘offensive language’ warning on iPlayer episodes of traditional jail sitcom Porridge.
The programme revolves round protagonist Norman Stanley Fletcher, performed by Ronnie Barker, serving time on the fictional HM Jail Slade in Cumberland with cellmate Lennie Godber, performed by Richard Beckinsale.
Followers of the Nineteen Seventies comedy have hit out after one episode featured a warning, advising viewers that the programme ‘displays the printed requirements, language and attitudes of its time’, including: ‘Some viewers could discover this content material offensive’.
On the time a BBC Spokesperson advised MailOnline: ‘Attitudes and language change over time and our method, similar to different streaming companies, is to inform viewers when a present contains one thing that possibly offensive, inappropriate or outdated and since some folks aren’t offended, it doesn’t suggest that others aren’t.’