Fawlty Towers co-creator and star John Cleese has actually labelled the BBC’s decision to get rid of an episode of the program from streaming services as “afraid and gutless and contemptible”.
Bottom line:
- Cleese explained the elimination of the episode as a self-serving relocation of “stupidity”
- The episode, which aired in 1975, includes racist slurs provided by the character Major Gowen
- UKTV says the episode will be restored with a cautioning about offending material
UKTV, which is owned by the BBC, momentarily got rid of the Fawlty Towers episode The Germans today due to the episode consisting of racist slurs
It followed a series of moves by streaming platforms in the previous week to purge offending material in the wake of a growing movement, online and by means of the Black Lives Matter street demonstrations, to fight bigotry.
In a series of tweets, Cleese called the program’s removal a self