Little Britain removed from streaming platforms

Presumably they'll also no longer be re-showing the original St Trinian films (a google suggest shown as recently as April this year). At the end of The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery film Frankie Howard's character makes his escape by blacking up his face and putting on an Indian(?) accent.


As recently as 2015 there was Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos which saw them portraying Indians. I seem to recall certain tabloids raising this at the time, though it's resurfaced in the past couple days https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2020/06/11/46297/harry_enfield_defends_using_blackface. On a related note I have a vague recollection of a Trevor McDonald impression sketch in an early series of Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, where I *think* Rory made use of blackface. Similarly I'm trying to recall what Dead Ringers did for their TV impersonations of Obama.

The interview with Harry was an absolute car crash this morning.

Dead Ringers was off TV by the time Obama was elected.

I sympathise ever so slightly with Harry. It does make an impressionist's job difficult if they're pretending to be someone of a different ethnicity. Jan Ravens got a lot of stick for being "racist" for doing what was an otherwise very good impression of Diane Abbott, even though she wasn't made up to look like her, so the counter argument that an impressionist doesn't have to do blackface to impersonate somebody of colour is flawed. Just being able to do a good impression of somebody vocally is apparently a no-no if they happen to be a different ethnicity to you. Of course, if it implies adopting a distasteful accent to get the impression across, then it'll raise a few eyebrows.

I also don't really care for now the clickbaiters are using headlines to imply Harry wilfully used a racial slur on air. It might not have been wholly necessary to refer to the word, but that was the name of the act he was talking about. The decline of context being taken into account is a growing concern.



He did indeed. The impression was bollocks as well, which doesn't really help.

I’m pretty sure Jon Culshaw did Trevor McDonald on his short lived ITV (The Impressionable Jon Culshaw) /although there doesn’t seem to be any trace of that on YouTube.


Edit: turns out there is a full episode here featuring the impersonation. It’s a better impression than Bremner's at least.
https://youtu.be/dtO8KbRiP9M

I agree, that's something which is a huge problem generally. That said, to use the slur in any context at the moment is a little tone deaf to put it mildly. If anything it highlights how much some people live in a bubble and don't see any harm in certain things which are problematic for others.

Yes but I fear it will just be removed anyway, purely because it contains offensive content.

Also add doctor who to the list, many of the original episodes could be classed as sexist by todays standards.

I have to ask if the streaming services are alienating current and potental future customers.

Very flawed logic whoever made such a criticism. The UK as a whole has an overwhelmingly white population. I suspect it was chosen because it is a small island which makes it far easier to trace people in terms of testing.

I have axed Britbox and Netflix. I won't be using their services in the future. I may be one in a million but what else can one do. I happen to have all the TV I like on physical media anyway, I never did "trust" the streaming companies fully, with their ability to remove content at will. I only had Britbox for the convenience. I do buy some movies on Apple but that is only because they are 4K and it is far cheaper than buying the player and discs. Buy I have a blu ray back up also. My Little Britain, Bo Selecta and Face/Phone jacker DVDs have been retrieved from storage! I do wonder if they will stop printing the DVDs?

"Axed" Netflix and BritBox for removing racist content but quite happy to buy entertainment from a company which runs sweatshops in China.

Yes I am very happy to buy Apple products. I have spent thousands on their tech. If you know of a company which you can suggest which does not use third party manufactures in China that have bad working conditions, let me know and I will consider them in future. Apple does not run anything, they use third party manufactures. Foxconn etc. The fact that you are typing this means you also have something most likely produced in China. We are all guilty of it. Not really the same thing however.

BTW I would not consider the content removed as racist as such. It is a comedy sketch. So it is not as black and white as people make out. How far can comedy go etc. Forgive the pun. And it was not just racist content that was removed, there were sketches that could be considered homophobic and transphobic and body-shaming. Nobody cared about these other things, and I notice nobody has really noted Facejacker. Should we be offended that an Asian man dressed up as a white guy? I hope not.

Well you could argue anyone who supports the decision of Netflix and BritBox but uses Apple products is being hypocritical. He’s supporting injustice twice so not being hypocritical in that sense if you see it that way.