Little Britain: Critics denounce ‘racist’ and ‘repellent’ scenes left in as series returns to BBC iPlayer

‘Little Britain was always 100 per cent repellent nastiness,’ wrote one viewer

BBC viewers have condemned the decision to restore Little Britain to iPlayer with many of its most offensive scenes intact.

The controversial Noughties sketch comedy was removed from the streaming service in 2020 following a backlash over scenes featuring its creators and stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, in blackface.

Earlier this week, the series was restored to iPlayer with scenes in which actors wore blackface or yellowface edited out.

However, many people on social media have pointed out examples of offensive scenes that were left in the re-edited series.

The Telegraph journalist Anita Singh shared screenshots from a sketch in which a character played by Walliams is describing an Asian student over the phone.

The character says the student has “yellowish skin” and a “slight smell of soy sauce”, referring to him as “the Ching-Chong Chinaman”.

Other “offensive” characters to have remained in the series include Anne, a nonverbal patient at a psychiatric hospital, and Vicky Pollard, a teenage mother whose depiction in the series has been criticised as “classist”.

The series began trending on Twitter, with many people suggesting that the series’ edits hadn’t gone far enough.

“All of Little Britain was bad,” wrote one person. “None of it was funny. Andy being a ‘fake disabled person using a wheelchair’ because he can stand up (which happens!), Anne the nonverbal disabled character, the transphobia, fatphobia... just bin it all.”

“Let’s just say it. Little Britain was always 100 per cent repellent nastiness,” wrote another.

“@BBCiPlayer you’ve put #littlebritain back on being careful to remove the racist #blackface characters but left in the anti-working class and the prejudices against the disabled,” wrote someone else.

Some people, however, argued that the series’ offending content should be left intact, claiming that it was intended to satirise prejudice rather than perpetuate it.

Critics, however, have claimed that the series was “punching down” in its approach to comedy.

“Personally I don’t think Little Britain should be edited,” wrote one person. “It was one of the most popular shows on the nations biggest television station.

“People need to be reminded of what they found funny in the 00s. And stop pretending that we were some sort of tolerant, accepting, nation.”

The Independent has contacted the BBC for comment.