The offending episode has been purged from a UK streaming platform. Photo / Supplied
The offending episode has been purged from a UK streaming platform. Photo / Supplied
An episode of classic comedy Fawlty Towers that was pulled from a UK streaming service in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests has been reinstated after star John Cleese slammed the decision.
The 1975 British comedy starring Cleese ran for two seasons, and has remained popular viewing in the modern day.
It follows Cleese's character Basil Fawlty making war jokes and mockingly impersonating Adolf Hitler while repeatedly shouting, "Don't mention the war!" in front of a group of German hotel guests.
The episode features Cleese's character performing an animated Adolf Hitler impersonation. Photo / Supplied
Cleese responded after the decision was made public.
"One of the things I've learned in the last 180 years is that people have very different senses of humour," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
"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.
"Fawlty Towers has given a large number of people a great deal of happiness, why would you want to stop that. 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."
UKTV has now announced the episode will continue to screen, but with warnings.
Its statement said: "We already offer guidance to viewers across some of our classic comedy titles, but we recognise that more contextual information can be required on our archive comedy, so we will be adding extra guidance and warnings to the front of programmes to highlight potentially offensive content and language.
"We will reinstate Fawlty Towers once that extra guidance has been added, which we expect will be in the coming days.
"We will continue to look at what content is on offer as we always have done."
The move to pull the episode outraged many fans on social media, who think the "cancel culture" in regards to removing historical TV shows has gone "too far".
If Fawlty Towers is now being removed by the BBC then humour is dead. The puritans are winning because the establishment is weak and has no self confidence.
If the powers that be at UKTV are withdrawing comedy gold “Fawlty Towers” in this brave new world, surely it shoild be for @JohnCleese Basil’s violent eye poke on Andrew Sachs’ Manuel ... not for his statement about why Britain entered World War 2. The world has gone 🥜 #comedy
According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for UKTV wouldn't clarify whether the move was permanent: "We aren't commenting on individual titles. However, we regularly review our programmes and make edits, add warnings and make schedule changes where necessary to ensure that our channels meet the expectations of our audience."
The episode also includes a scene in which regular hotel guest Major Gowen uses strong racist language about the West Indies cricket team, although this is usually now edited out.
The offending episode has been purged from a UK streaming platform. Photo / Supplied
The removal of the episode came as a host of controversial shows have been stripped from a range of streaming services over past days, in response to outrage over the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody.
Netflix removed four of Chris Lilley's TV shows for racial depictions, including the critically acclaimed Summer Heights High, while HBO Max ripped Hollywood classic Gone With The Wind.
Popular sketch comedy shows Little Britain and Come Fly With Me were also removed from several streaming services overseas after controversy over the use of blackface characters, and The Mighty Boosh and The League Of Gentlemen were pulled from Netflix.
