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Anorak News | Mind Your Language

Mind Your Language

by | 11th, May 2004

‘HAVING waved goodbye to Robert Kilroy-Silk, Ron Atkinson and John Leslie in recent times, it’s occurred to us that TV is purging itself.

‘Bloody Kilroy-Silk’s moved into No.33’

It’s as if TV wants to starts again.

And no-one and no show is safe from the cull. As the Express reports, shows like Fawlty Towers and Only Fools And Horses are falling prey to the censor’s editing splice.

Words and phrases in older programmes that have now become unacceptable will be removed.

The Mail illustrates how things will progress towards enlightenment by reproducing a ‘joke’ that one viewer complained about.

In an episode of OFAH, granddad comments to Del, who is stocking up on items in case of an attack from the Russians, that he shouldn’t worry because a ‘Paki shop’ would be open in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

At the time that was deemed inoffensive, merely emblematic of the way an old duffer who lived in grotty council flat in Peckham would speak.

But now the BBC finds that ‘research [the single complaint] shows that its perceived offensiveness has increased significantly over the intervening years, and, in the absence of a particular contextual justification, its use in programmes is no longer acceptable.’

The word will now be removed or obscured in future broadcasts.

As will be the Major’s racial masterclass in Fawlty Towers in which he explains the differences between ‘niggers’ and ‘wogs’, or n*****s’ and ‘w**s’, as the Mail puts it.

What that difference is no-one will ever get to find out. And that goes for niggers and wogs, too, who, will have discover the truth by watching reruns of Mind Your Language instead.’



Posted: 11th, May 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink