On Friday both “Little Britain” and “Come Fly With Me”, two BBC series created by and starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas, were removed from Netflix without any prior warning. They were also removed from BBC iPlayer and BritBox. At the time the general consensus was due to the racist tones of the blackface used in many of the sketches and the BBC have now confirmed that this is the case stating that “times have changed”.
“Little Britain” first aired in 2003 and was a comedy sketch show that poked fun a wide range of people including black people, transvestites, disabled people and Thai brides. The follow on series, “Come Fly With Me”, took a similar approach albeit set in an airport. Both Lucas and Walliams have previously stated that they regret creating many of the characters and would not do them now.
“If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters. 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.” – Matt Lucas (2017, The Big Issue)
Given the current worldwide protests for #BlackLivesMatter it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that they were removed. Similarly, Channel 4’s “Bo Selecta” has also been removed from All 4 after the show’s creator, Leigh Francis, issued a tearful apology saying “Back in 2002 I did a show called Bo’ Selecta, I portrayed many black people. Back then I didn’t think anything about it, people didn’t say anything, I’m not going to blame other people … I didn’t realise how offensive it was back then.”
Good
They were rubbish
murder should be removed from movies and tv because murder is bad…… ffs people know its wrong and no longer in tune with mondern day
Yeah, I know.
How bloody pathetic.
For anyone complaining, the people who made the show actually asked for this. They recognised how problematic this was, and are glad it’s gone… if not just for their own image, but still a good call.
ffs what ever next
It was also removed because the creators regretted the racial and gender stereotypes.
Erase history and you are doomed to repeat it
What a lot of shit
So stupid!
Well what aboot white chicks?
It always was unfunny bullshit.
Comedy that constantly punches down is just lazy writing.
Thank goodness for dvds then .
Im just here to see all the snowflakes cheering
it’s comedy ffs. if you don’t like it thumb it down on nf or gtfo.