Bias BBC

Haha! Oh no! A dated sketch show that's been available for decades has been shelved and one episode of Fawlty Towers has been removed while it's reviewed, you've only had 45 years to watch it! The BBC is an invaluable educational resource...it sounds like you're not making quite enough use of it.

Why? What show?

The Diary of Adrain Mole

It wasn't THAT good. Hardly what I'd call the Canon of British Culture.

I mentioned it because it was goofy.
If I wanted good I would have said "Tripods"

Now THAT was a good book.

Only saw the tv version, of which they only did the first two chapters of the trilogy, so I didn't get to see the end.

It was a loooooooooong time ago when I read it but... I vaguely recall, they carpet bomb the tripod HQ with a hot air balloon raid?

Diminishing returns. The first in the trilogy was the good one.

Spent decades wondering if the case was that they just never showed it on PBS here. Was one of the first things I looked up when I got on the web a few years ago.

They removed Little Britain because there's blackface in it.

Well no f**king shit. If you keep pushing past the line to see what point goes too far, surprise! Someone's going to come back to you with an answer some day.

Besides, cry me a f**king river! You know what the funniest undiscovered gem of British entertainment was from that era? Little cartoon show called Popetown, and the reason you never heard of it was because the Catholic community cried blood and had it pulled after broadcasting one episode. YouTube it, it is the funniest thing you will watch today :)

Thanks! *adds to list*
I watched the thing Vaga mentioned, the SCTV thing; that was nuts.

I really don't think Little Britain was funny, punching down never is. The writers said they wouldn't do it now, that they were just showing off. It's no great loss.

And as for SCTV, I'm still... confused... by what I felt while watching it. :P

SCTV was the funniest show ever. And this was at a time when Monty Python was a happening. Same with the first cast SNL, move over, overrated smuggypants.

Only Red Dwarf was of that caliber.

I love Red Dwarf, never gets old.

Unfortunately they don't show it here anymore, been over a decade.

I know a master troll who goes by Dave Lister. Unfortunately Facebook doesn't seem to approve using the name and likeness.

I've been begging him to troll here (he comes to make memes) but he won't, preferring to prey on the smaller circle on the site we used to be on because we all know each other a bit too much.

Red Dwarf was tits! I still need to make time to see the new one.

Word about the new one tho was,,,

Haha! Yeah, it was...A Thing.

I mean, they keep making shows just like it, nor was it the first of its kind. Base humor is an easy way to find footing in the fame game.

Jeeves and Worcester certifiably IS a historical landmark of British entertainment with a blackface naughty in it. Hugh Laurie, pleasant man though he usually is, gave the "but it was a different time" excuse but that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth, so they just don't talk about it anymore. That one does produce mixed feelings because it was a delightful adaptation of PG Woodhouse's classic, but they just weren't quite smart enough to ask if that was going to fly. I would have a conversation about Jeeves and Worcester before I'd ever have a conversation about Little Britain, though.

Yeah, it's a shame when people try defending the indefensible, especially with the "but it was a long time ago.." excuse. Just suck it up and say "Yeah, that wasn't ok. Sorry".

It's also a shame that it's taken a tragedy for people to think "maybe we should consider our content?" "Maybe we should look at our media and our statues and our attitudes and consider the impact they actually have on people?"

Of all people, I actually think Warner Brothers do the best job of this. Some of their more gray area cartoons (not the downright no-questions just plain bad content which are just sitting in a vault gathering dust where they belong - but the shaky ground stuff that requires you to know a little bit about the context to see how racist the intent was) are distributed these days with a great disclaimer that says "these depictions were wrong then and they are wrong now".

I didn't know that, that's really positive.