The most famous episode of a 1970s sitcom, making fun of a British hotel dealing with German tourists, has been yanked from a BBC-run streaming service amid a censorship spree against anything that could be deemed “racist.”
“The Germans” was one of the just twelve episodes of Fawlty Towers, a comedy starring John Cleese (of ‘Monty Python’ fame) as Basil Fawlty, the hapless owner of a struggling hotel in Devon, that featured the memorable punchline, “Don’t mention the war!”
British media reported on Thursday that it has been pulled from the BBC’s streaming service UKTV.
No official reason was given. The episode, which first aired in 1975, includes scenes in which Cleese’s character displays bigotry against a black doctor, and a regular guest at the hotel using “very strong racist language”about cricketers, according to the Guardian. The latter scene has been censored by many broadcasters, although not by Netflix. The remaining eleven episodes remain available.
‘Fawlty Towers’ thus joins the list of other British shows pulled in recent weeks over “racism” concerns – which spread to the UK after violent protests across the US over the death of George Floyd, an African-American Minnesotan killed by Minneapolis police.
Also on rt.com ‘Times have changed’: BBC iPlayer and Britbox follow Netflix to REMOVE hit show 'Little Britain' over BLACKFACE controversy‘Little Britain’ and its sequel ‘Come Fly With Me’ were censored over the use of blackface, not just from Netflix but from Britbox and BBC’s iPlayer streaming service as well. Netflix has also dropped the BBC shows ‘Mighty Boosh’ and ‘League of Gentlemen’ for the same reason. They remain available on BBC’s iPlayer service, so far.
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