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Little Britain removed from streaming platforms

Split from US Demonstrations | News Coverage (June 2020)

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NL
Ne1L C
madmusician posted:
I think that this does show the issue of streaming services becoming the 'norm' when it comes to content delivery. It's why I still buy DVDs of programmes that I want to keep (or keep my own recorded archive of programmes that aren't released commercially) because there's no permanence to a streaming service's content.

I can understand why a show being 'on iPlayer' or 'on BritBox' is seen as more 'willingly available' than 'DVDs are still for sale on Amazon', and this is why content providers are now looking at which archive shows are acceptable and which are not. Obviously we're now in a period (which I fully support) in which all sorts of people and organisations are reaching around trying to do better and this sudden shift in national (/international) mood has led to what may appear to be quickly-taken decisions. But I think that it is right for us not to have pieces of art available as part of mainstream services (such as iPlayer and Netflix) that cause distress to large swathes of society.

Which takes me back to my original point - all streaming or DRM-based digital content has a lifespan, as we saw when the BBC Store was shut and everybody lost their purchases. It doesn't exist for ever. The fact that for most people now Netflix or BritBox replaces watching a DVD blurs the distinction between 'archive content that I have made the effort to purchase and own' and 'content that is provided to me by a streaming service' and this has led to some of what is being written about this issue, I think.

I might be old-fashioned, but I'm very happy to have my own DVD and archive collection of things (ranging from The West Wing to The Thick of It to old sports and news broadcasts - but not including Little Britain, for the record) that I have full control of and can watch at my own whim without any need for DRM servers or streaming rights. This particular issue demonstrates the blurred-lines of the two. And I think that it would be very different if DVDs were still the main way that people watched their personal media - I think it would be highly unlikely that DVDs would stop being made of these series, even if this was still the principal method of archive TV distribution.


That is a very good point to make. Like you I have a personal media library full of documentaries, comedies etc and its been a terrific source of distraction over the last few months. The only thing that could be considered controversial is the BBC's "Timeshift that looked at "The Black and White Minstrel Show"
IS
Inspector Sands
Rkolsen posted:
Brekkie posted:
Little Britain has been removed from the iPlayer, BritBox and Netflix due to concerns about blackface.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52983319


Okay it ran for four seasons between 2003 and 2008*, they still should have known it was bad. But removing the show completely? I never watched the show - is it a single story line throughout the season or a single story each episode like a sitcom? If it’s the latter couldn’t they remove the specific episodes?

*From an American perspective that length of time between series would lose audiences and make the true fans crazy.

Think of a British series like a series of novels - written by and the vision of one or two people, a new one comes out every year.

Think of a similar series in the US as a magazine, produced by a team and comes out weekly
WH
Whataday Founding member
PFMC84 posted:
Jon posted:
PFMC84 posted:
If Walliams is regretful over the stereotypical characters he did in Little Britain, I wonder if he will now stop putting effeminate mannerisms on or pretending to be gay just to get a cheap laugh every time he appears on TV? It’s nauseating and borderline offensive.

What you’re doing there is equating effeminate mannerisms with being gay. The two things can be mutually exclusive.

Walliams has also more or less admitted he is bisexual and states he’s always been quite camp. So I’m not it’s fair to say he’s “putting it on” apart from in this sense any entertainer is probably playing a exaggerated version of themselves.

No, what Walliams is doing is equating effeminate mannerisms with being gay, because he only ever has done those mannerisms when he's trying to insinuate that he's gay or when he makes a gay reference or joke.


Absolutely correct.

Jon, I don't know if you're familiar with Walliams' work on Britain's Got Talent and the running 'joke' that he is Simon Cowell's partner? The possibility that they might be gay lovers is played for laughs in a way it wouldn't be if it was between Walliams and Amanda Holden for instance.
JA
james-2001
Not just British stuff of course, I've been watching Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In on Amazon Prime recently, and there's some awfully racist stuff there, especially in the second season where it seems the only reason they had black cast members and guests was to get them to take part in racially charged jokes and sketches. Got a lot less blatant later in the run, but it was still there, especially on the episodes when Sammy Davis Junior was a guest. I almost wonder if that's going to get pulled, or at least prefaced with a warning that isn't there at the moment.
JO
Jonwo
Larry the Loafer posted:
Having watched Bo Selecta when I was younger, I never even considered the race of Craig David or Mel B, most likely because the caricatures were so far removed from the people they were based on that I considered them to be their own characters. As far as I know, Leigh and Mel are good friends in real life, and it was reported a while ago that Craig David feigned anger over his depiction after being advised to by his PR people.

Then again, his depiction of Oprah Winfrey in his Michael Jackson tribute was so grotesque, I could only assume it was meant to be an ironic parody of black caricatures, because I couldn't see how a white man playing a grumbling fat black woman with cravings for fried chicken ever got okayed.


I never got Craig David's annoyance about his portrayal on Bo Selecta considering he even appeared on the show.

The Oprah sketch he did, that was a 'what were you thinking?' moment. I'm not sure how that got passed Channel 4 at all.
JA
james-2001
Jonwo posted:
I never got Craig David's annoyance about his portrayal on Bo Selecta considering he even appeared on the show.


He later on claimed that he wasn't really annoyed by it, but he was told by his PR people to act like he was because it would get him publicity, especially as his career was going through a lull at the time. I can sort-of understand if he was annoyed though because it did seem to get to the point where the Bo Selecta version overshadowed the real Craig David. Even as someone who liked Craig David and bought several of his records, I find it hard not to think of the Bo Selecta version over the real person whenever I hear his name. That didn't really happen with the other Bo Selecta characters, not even Michael Jackson or Mel B.

Quote:
The Oprah sketch he did, that was a 'what were you thinking?' moment. I'm not sure how that got passed Channel 4 at all.


Having Trisha speak with a West Indian accent and constantly saying "rice and peas" was no better either. That wasn't even a one-off like the Oprah one was either, it was reccuring throughout the run of the show.
Last edited by james-2001 on 10 June 2020 1:57pm
SP
Steve in Pudsey
Larry the Loafer posted:
Having watched Bo Selecta when I was younger, I never even considered the race of Craig David or Mel B, most likely because the caricatures were so far removed from the people they were based on that I considered them to be their own characters. As far as I know, Leigh and Mel are good friends in real life, and it was reported a while ago that Craig David feigned anger over his depiction after being advised to by his PR people.


There is, perhaps, a distinction between paradying a specific individual and the kind of stereotype characters Come Fly With Me relies on.

It would be easy to extrapolate some of these arguments to extremes - where do people stand on the likes of Jon Culshaw doing a Frank Bruno voice for his Spitting Image puppet?
JA
james-2001
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There is, perhaps, a distinction between paradying a specific individual and the kind of stereotype characters Come Fly With Me relies on.


The thing with Bo Selecta is that they weren't really even parodies of Craig David or Mel B, he was playing them as if they were Billy Casper from Kes and Jim Bowen instead. No resemblance to the real people at all. The real Mel B made enough appearances to show she wasn't offended by the portrayal regardless.

David Gest used to claim that Michael Jackson liked his portrayal on the show too, but I have no idea how true that was.

And though Leigh has apologised for his portayal of black characters, I don't think he's said anything about his portayals of Elton John, George Michael and Will Young which were very homophobic.
Last edited by james-2001 on 10 June 2020 2:04pm - 3 times in total
BR
Brekkie
The "times have changed" argument really pisses me off. Blackface wasn't any more acceptable in 2003 than it is now.

The better way broadcasters can see real change is to stop inviting racists and representatives of racist parties and organisations on to news and current affairs shows under the guise of "balance". That is the one thing that has really changed since the early noughties, when the likes of the BNP were blacklisted from our screens, not given their own radio show.
SC
scottishtv Founding member
LondonViewer posted:
Quite. Along with ‘only gay in the village’. I think their stereotypes were more damaging to LGBT people than anyone else. Don’t care that it’s been pulled.

I think you might be misremembering. The Daffyd Thomas character was deliberately over-the-top and attention-seeking. In most sketches it became clear that he wasn't the only gay in the village. Plenty of other gay characters featured in the sketches - and they were mostly just getting on with life and not making a big deal of their sexuality. That's what annoyed Daffyd.

The outdated stereotypes in Mrs Brown's Boys irritate me far more, but I avoid watching it as far as possible.

That said, I don't miss Little Britain, the humour was repetitive, lazy in places but it wasn't all terrible. The sketches of the MP standing outside his house trying to making excuses for bad behaviour are still pretty relevant. It was really a 'watch once' type of show.

Also, thanks for Asa for bringing up the thread on Come Fly with Me . I think it was more based on stereotypes, and I recall a lot of discussion/disapproval about the characters at the time. It's not simply a case of "it was of it's time" as many people didn't find it funny when first broadcast.
WH
Whataday Founding member
Steve in Pudsey posted:
There is, perhaps, a distinction between paradying a specific individual and the kind of stereotype characters Come Fly With Me relies on.


My long held view is that there is a distinction, although having discussed this with BAME people, the history of blackface means that a white person portraying a black person is problematic full stop.

And besides, Bo Selecta can hardly use that distinction:




With regards to Spitting Image, I tend to feel that using puppets placed enough distance between that performance and blackface, and the series constantly called out racism, although I'm sure the new series will have a more diverse cast.
RD
RDJ
Without wishing to sound flippant, but it was definitely known at the time that Little Britain was controversial and not PC at the time. But that was the hook of the series.

It was to be viewed in an ironic nature. The shock factor of the stereotypical profiling is what it’s all about.

There was always the risk of people taking offence to it, but at the time the only main publicised complaints I seem to recall was about the elderly Female incontinent character.

This along with many other comedies (Fealty Towers, Father Ted etc.) were born before a time of Social Media, where outcry can’t be easily mediated and can be heightened in a much more Immediate way like nowadays.

Does this mean they were right at the time? No.
But does it mean that they can just be eradicated from existence. That should also be a no.

Just because the humour at the time is not something that would be replicated nowadays should not be a reason for them to be completely erased as if it never happened. Though rightly it shouldn’t be made as mainstream as it was at the time which was the case when it was on the likes of iPlayer.

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