Little Britain is accessible to look at through BBC iPlayer once more following a lot of edits to “higher mirror the cultural panorama” of in the present day.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ sketch present was faraway from the streaming service in 2020 after dealing with criticism for a lot of its recurring characters, notably using blackface within the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. Netflix and BritBox additionally eliminated the programme from streaming.
Nevertheless, following a lot of edits to the sketch present – together with the removing of Black characters depicted by Lucas and Williams akin to Desiree DeVere, “portly Thai bride” Ting Tong, and Pastor Jesse King – the collection has returned to the BBC’s streaming service.
Different Little Britain characters akin to Vicky Pollard, Emily Howard and Lou and Andy stay within the edited episodes.
A press release from the BBC stated: “Little Britain has been made accessible to followers on BBC iPlayer following edits made to the collection by Matt and David that higher mirror the adjustments within the cultural panorama during the last 20 years because the present was first made.”
In a joint assertion on Twitter in June 2020, the pair stated: “David and I’ve each spoken publicly lately of our remorse that we performed characters of different races. As soon as once more we wish to make it clear that it was unsuitable; we’re very sorry.”
Little Britain started as a radio programme in 2000. Walliams and Lucas labored on the multi-BAFTA successful TV model collectively between 2003 and 2007, whereas their second sketch present Come Fly With Me ran for a single season between 2010 and 2011.
Final 12 months (Might 21, 2021) Lucas and Walliams said on The Jonathan Ross Present that had been engaged on a brand new collection collectively.
“We simply have an thought of one thing we wish to do,” he instructed Ross. “The thought – the place we play numerous totally different characters, which is, you already know, one thing folks count on from us.”
He added: “We’re simply going to start out writing it, and if we really feel it’s good and we wish to share it with folks, we’ll ask if anybody desires to place it on TV.”