Fawlty Towers episode to be reinstated to streaming platform after outcry

John Cleese told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Friday that people were “stupid” if they failed to see the episodes as a critique of racist attitudes rather than an endorsement of them.

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Though no further explanation was given by UKTV, it is believed the offending scene is one where the Major (Ballard Berkeley) uses the N-word three times while regaling hotel manager Basil Fawlty (Cleese) with a story about taking a woman to see a Test match featuring India.

Cleese, who wrote the series with Connie Booth, who played Polly, was critical of BBC management for bowing to pressure to purge its catalogue of “problematic” material in the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests without assessing that material on a more nuanced basis.

“One of the things I’ve learned in the last 180 years is that people have very different senses of humour,” the writer, actor and founding member of Monty Python said from his home in Los Angeles.

“Some of them understand that if you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of you’re not broadcasting their views, you’re making fun of them.”

It comes after streaming provider Netflix removed four of Australian comedian Chris Lilley’s programs from its library, following debate over his portrayal of non-white characters and use of blackface.

The shows – We Can Be Heroes, Summer Heights High, Angry Boys and Jonah From Tonga – were broadcast by the ABC between 2005 and 2014.

Lilley used brownface as Tongan schoolkid Jonah Takalua, arguably his most well-known character, while sporting blackface to play an African-American rapper named S.mouse. He has also been criticised for his portray of several Asian characters.

The BBC also pulled the sketch comedy show Little Britain from its library this week. The show’s creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams played several non-white characters, including Lucas playing a transexual Thai woman named Ting Tong, and Walliams performing in blackface as a woman named Desiree DeVere.

“Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer,” a BBC spokesperson said on Tuesday.

UKTV said the company already offers “guidance to viewers across some of our classic comedy titles”, but warnings would become more commonplace.

“…But we recognize that more contextual information can be required on our archive comedy, so we will be adding extra guidance and warnings to the front of programs to highlight potentially offensive content and language.”