John Cleese has slammed the BBC for removing an episode of Fawlty Towers from streaming service UKTV.
The move came as the likes of Little Britain, The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen were taken down from streaming giants in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The instalment, titled The Germans, was previously amended, editing out racist slurs used by Major Gowen, while Cleese’s character Basil Fawlty also shouts ‘don’t mention the war’ while skirting around his hotel throughout.
Cleese, who both starred in and co-wrote the classic comedy alongside Connie Booth, called the axe ‘stupid’.
‘One of the things I’ve learned in the last 180 years is that people have very different senses of humour,’ he vented to 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,’ he continued.
‘We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them. 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. 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. 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 hitting out at the decision, Cleese supported the BBC editing the slurs out of the episode back in 2013.
The corporation edited The Germans when being repeated pre-watershed, and said in a statement: ‘We are very proud of Fawlty Towers and its contribution to British television comedy.
‘But public attitudes have changed significantly since it was made and it was decided to make some minor changes, with the consent of John Cleese’s management, to allow the episode to transmit to a family audience.’
UKTV simply explained: ‘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.’
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