Little Britain: Critics condemn ‘racist’ and ‘repulsive’ scenes left behind as the series returns to BBC iPlayer

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

The controversial Noughties sketch comedy was removed from the streaming service in 2020 after a look back at scenes with its creators and stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and Blackface.

Earlier this week, the series was restored to iPlayer with scenes in which the actors edited Blackface or Yellowface.

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

The Telegraph Journalist Anita Singh shared screenshots of a sketch in which a character played by Walliams describes an Asian student over the phone.

The character says that the student has “yellow skin” and a “slight smell of soy sauce”, which he refers to as “the Ching-Chong Chinaman”.

Other “offensive” characters that have remained in the series include Anne, a nonverbal patient in a psychiatric hospital, and Vicky Pollard, a teenage mother whose portrayal in the series has been criticized as “classicist.”

The series began to trend on Twitter, with many people suggesting that the editions of the series did not go far enough.

“All of Little Britain was bad, “one person wrote.” None of that was funny. Andy is a “fake disabled person with a wheelchair” because he can get up (whatever happens!), Anne the nonverbal disabled character, the transphobia, the fatphobia … just inside everything.

“Let’s just say it. Little Britain was always 100 percent varied nastiness “, wrote another.

“@BBCiPlayer You put #littlebritain back to be careful about erasing the racist #blackface characters, but in the anti-working class and left the prejudices against the disabled,” someone else wrote.

Some people, however, have argued that the offensive content of the series should remain intact, claiming that it was intended to satirize prejudices rather than perpetuate them.

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

“Personally, I do not think so Little Britain should be changed, “one person wrote.” It was one of the most popular shows on the nation’s largest television channel.

“People need to be reminded of what they found funny in the ’00s. And stop pretending we’re a kind of tolerant, accepting nation.

The Independent contacted the BBC for comment.