TV Home Forum

Little Britain removed from streaming platforms

Split from US Demonstrations | News Coverage (June 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
AN
another_beauty
UKnews posted:


Seems like a strange decision, something I’ve an overreaction, nowhere near the level of problem that other programmes that have been removed had. And if it’s been edited out already, and has been for a long time, it’s even stranger. Maybe it hadn’t been edited from that version and it’ll reappear in edited version?


I recall the original DVD set of Fawlty towers had the line "Is it your legs" edited out of an episode (the kipper and the corpse) but it was restored in the remastered DVD. I assume they thought it would be offensive to the disabled. Yet the rest of the episodes were complete and untouched.

I wonder what will happen with On The Buses, it is repeated a lot, I guess that will be stopped along with Porridge if Rising Damp has gone.

They will all be gone soon Sad
Last edited by another_beauty on 11 June 2020 11:49pm - 2 times in total
NL
Ne1L C
As hard as it may seem the very first episode of last of the summer wine had Clegg talking about a canon who was “more than democratic in his ways with the choir boys”

Now that line didn’t garner any reaction from the audience and there is of course the possibility that no double meaning existed.

The phrase I use is “treading on eggshells” It’s worrying to think that the possibility (no matter how small) of causing offence could lead to the archives being purged.
IS
Inspector Sands
UKnews posted:
Next up - although the headline is misleading, it’s probably not that bit that’s the problem.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/11/fawlty-towers-dont-mention-the-war-episode-removed-from-uktv

What’s strange is that - presumably - the version on UKTV Play would be the same as the broadcast version which, the report says, has had the racist language removed in recent years. It also says it’s still there in the Netflix version.

Seems like a strange decision, something I’ve an overreaction, nowhere near the level of problem that other programmes that have been removed had. And if it’s been edited out already, and has been for a long time, it’s even stranger. Maybe it hadn’t been edited from that version and it’ll reappear in edited version?

That is such an odd scene and always has been, it's very jarring and seems out of place. I can kind of see what they were getting at I think, but don't really see why it was needed
DA
davidhorman
Inspector Sands posted:

That is such an odd scene and always has been, it's very jarring and seems out of place. I can kind of see what they were getting at I think, but don't really see why it was needed


That scene - assuming we're talking about the scene with the Major using racist epithets - was broadcast uncut on Yesterday a few months ago. There was a warning from the CA before the episode. I can't remember if it was pre- or post-watershed, though I imagine it must have been the later.
AN
another_beauty
Quote:
https://news.sky.com/story/fawlty-towers-episode-pulled-from-streaming-service-due-to-racial-slurs-12005118

A UKTV spokesman said: "UKTV has temporarily removed an episode of Fawlty Towers, The Germans, from Gold's Box Set.

"The episode contains racial slurs so we are taking the episode down while we review it. We regularly review older content to ensure it meets audience expectations and are particularly aware of the impact of outdated language.

Perhaps it will return.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
davidhorman posted:
Inspector Sands posted:

That is such an odd scene and always has been, it's very jarring and seems out of place. I can kind of see what they were getting at I think, but don't really see why it was needed


That scene - assuming we're talking about the scene with the Major using racist epithets - was broadcast uncut on Yesterday a few months ago. There was a warning from the CA before the episode. I can't remember if it was pre- or post-watershed, though I imagine it must have been the later.


That'll be The Germans episode, which I believe now only airs after the watershed, and it'll almost certainly be because the Major uses the N word in a discussion, but trying to cover this up makes the Major look more sane than he actually is. The back end of the same episode sees Basil doing a massively OTT Goosestep in front of German guests and pretending to be Hitler. All of which is supposedly fine, if clearly comedic in nature.

The Fawlty Towers thing comes up regularly in this sort of discussion, that and the likes of Tom & Jerry/Looney Toons and friends.
SP
Steve in Pudsey
It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out with Fawlty Towers. UKTV have tweeted that the episode has been pulled temporarily while they review it. Presumably that means they're going to make some edits.

The whole premise of FT is that Basil is a horrible person. But even he recoils when The Major makes those outdated remarks.

The whole series is a parody of the Little Englander and xenophobic attitudes and casual unconscious racism. It is literally - albeit subtly - calling out racism, the humour is in how ridiculous those remarks from the Major are, we laugh at him rather than with him.

But it brings us to an interesting point: they are looking at one episode, not the whole series. Why is Andrew Sachs playing a stereotypical Spanish waiter - complete with comedy accent and moustache - apparently acceptable but Matt Lucas playing a stereotype character from another culture with a comedy accent isn't?

Is it just because Sachs didn't have to change his skin colour with make up, or is it because society doesn't mind racist/xenophobic attitudes towards the Spanish?

(Let's try to steer clear of bringing Brexit into the discussion on that last point)
CW
Charlie Wells Moderator
Neil Jones posted:
davidhorman posted:
Inspector Sands posted:

That is such an odd scene and always has been, it's very jarring and seems out of place. I can kind of see what they were getting at I think, but don't really see why it was needed


That scene - assuming we're talking about the scene with the Major using racist epithets - was broadcast uncut on Yesterday a few months ago. There was a warning from the CA before the episode. I can't remember if it was pre- or post-watershed, though I imagine it must have been the later.


That'll be The Germans episode, which I believe now only airs after the watershed, and it'll almost certainly be because the Major uses the N word in a discussion, but trying to cover this up makes the Major look more sane than he actually is. The back end of the same episode sees Basil doing a massively OTT Goosestep in front of German guests and pretending to be Hitler. All of which is supposedly fine, if clearly comedic in nature.

The Fawlty Towers thing comes up regularly in this sort of discussion, that and the likes of Tom & Jerry/Looney Toons and friends.

A relatively simple option would be for the censor beep to be used, with perhaps a black rectangle or blurring to prevent lip-readers being offended. That way it still indicates the major said something that is now deemed offensive/unacceptable without loosing as much context as simply editing out the line/word.

I imagine streaming services may eventually opt for warnings to be placed at the beginning of programmes and in their descriptions to warn about 'out-dated' content, with the option for them to be locked behind a parental PIN. Content shown on linear TV probably requires some form of censorship either in the forms of edits or 'bleeping', as potentially anyone could watch the programmes without realising it's contents in advance. Bluerays, DVDs, and specially paid-for streamed content should in my opinion remain unedited but with sufficient warnings, as people pro-actively choose to purchase them.
TV
iloveTV1
Apparently Gavin and Stacey could be next: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/gavin-stacey-race-row-viewers-22177971
BC
Blake Connolly Founding member
iloveTV2304 posted:


Only according to the tabloids, who are doing their usual tactic of whipping up the idea of more extreme things happening so that the more sensible ideas get lumped in with them and appear just as bad. They've always done it, from straight bananas to 'Winterval'.

Thanks to their efforts, I'm sure more people saw the stories about The Inbetweeners being taken down due to 'outrage' than rights reasons and more people probably think that episode of Fawlty Towers was dropped because of "Don't mention the war" than the Major's racial epithets which were already edited out of the BBC version with Cleese's approval.
MA
markjuk
Even the classic programmes are now cut to shreds to 'fit 2020 attitudes', it has gone beyond pathetic.

The latest repeat run of Are You being Served? on GOLD has many scenes cut, many are obvious. Including today's episode 'The hand of fate' involving a Japanese customer. What is the point of GOLD, when the limited programmes they do show nowadays (on an endless cycle) are cut to shreds?

It's worse with Britbox, where the BBC and ITV have the cheek to demand money to view limited programming, of which the more acceptable archive material is cut to shreds to fit the standards of the platform.

I am not a lover of censoring the past to fit today's narrative. The past happened, we have to live and learn from it, not pretend it never happened.

Luckily the likes of Talking Pictures pushed back on this. Otherwise they would have little to show, and what they could show would be heavily censored.

My attitude is: If you feel something may be offensive, don't watch it.
Last edited by markjuk on 12 June 2020 9:42am - 4 times in total
AN
another_beauty
Steve in Pudsey posted:


But it brings us to an interesting point: they are looking at one episode, not the whole series. Why is Andrew Sachs playing a stereotypical Spanish waiter - complete with comedy accent and moustache - apparently acceptable but Matt Lucas playing a stereotype character from another culture with a comedy accent isn't?

Is it just because Sachs didn't have to change his skin colour with make up, or is it because society doesn't mind racist/xenophobic attitudes towards the Spanish?

(Let's try to steer clear of bringing Brexit into the discussion on that last point)


The Manuel character was Mexican if I remember right, when the series was repeated in Spain. We must remember that all of this is mainly virtue signalling, there is no logic in it. Otherwise most episodes of these classic sitcoms would have been removed. ie Doctor Who is sexist, Facejacker has a person dressing up as other races, Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, you could find something offensive in most of these. But action only seems to be taken on certain things. If there was logic in it, these companies would say we are against all offensive things and remove the lot.

https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/john-cleese-slams-uktv-decision-to-remove-fawlty-towers-episode-as-stupid-20200612-p5523w.html

Quote:
John Cleese has railed at the decision of BBC-owned streamer UKTV to remove the famous The Germans episode of Fawlty Towers from its platform, labelling people who failed to see it as a critique of racist attitudes rather than an endorsement of them as “stupid”.

“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.”


“The Major was an old fossil left over from decades before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them,” said Cleese, who knew nothing of UKTV's move until this masthead contacted him. “If they can’t see that, if people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?

“Fawlty Towers has given a large number of people a great deal of happiness, why would you want to stop that,” he added “It reminds me of the definition of a Scottish Presbyterian as someone who has a nasty, sneaking feeling that someone, somewhere, is having a good time.”

“A lot of the people in charge now at the BBC just want to hang onto their jobs,” he said. “If a few people get excited they pacify them rather than standing their ground as they would have done 30 or 40 years ago.”

Despite taking issues with moves to cull offending items, Cleese expressed his support for the aims of the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

“At the moment there is a huge swell of anger and a really admirable feeling that we must make our society less discriminatory, and I think that part of it is very good.”

Last edited by another_beauty on 12 June 2020 9:48am - 3 times in total

Newer posts