UKTV to reinstate Fawlty Towers ‘don’t mention the war’ episode

An episode of Fawlty Towers which featured racist language has been put back on UKTV after the streaming site took it down yesterday.

The episode titled The Germans – fondly remembered for the line ‘don’t mention the War’ – will return to the platform with warnings highlighting ‘potentially offensive content and language’, a statement from the organisation said.

UKTV, which is owned by BBC Studios, had temporarily made The Germans unavailable while it carried out a review.

An episode of Fawlty Towers which featured racist language has been put back on UKTV after the streaming site took it down as it contained ‘racial slurs’ 

The decision to remove it was criticised by John Cleese, who played misanthropic hotel owner Basil Fawlty in the series.

UKTV’s 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 decision to remove it was criticised by John Cleese (left), who played misanthropic hotel owner Basil Fawlty in the series. The episode contains scenes showing the Major Gowen (right) character using offensive language about the West Indies cricket team

On Friday, Cleese told The Age newspaper 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.

‘If they can’t see that, if people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?’

He said there was a ‘really admirable feeling that we must make our society less discriminatory’ but said: ‘A lot of the people in charge now at the BBC just want to hang on to 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.’

The episode first aired in 1975 and sees Basil Fawlty goose-stepping around while shouting ‘don’t mention the war’ in front of a group of visiting Germans.

The BBC this week removed Little Britain (pictured) and Netflix purged Noel Fielding’s The Mighty Boosh and The League Of Gentlemen following outcry from Black Lives Matter protesters 

On Wednesday, Ant and Dec issued an apology to their Twitter followers for ‘impersonating people of colour’ during ‘comedy’ sketches (pictured) on Saturday Night Takeaway 

It also contains scenes showing the Major Gowen character using offensive language about the West Indies cricket team.

The Major says: ‘The strange thing was that throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as n*****s.’ He adds: ‘ ‘No, no, no, no,’ I said, ‘n*****s are West Indians, these people are w**s’.

‘No, no, no,’ she said, ‘all cricketers are n*****s’.’

The show also sees Mr Fawlty appear surprised when he is treated by a black doctor in hospital.

The episode is the latest in a series of classic programmes culled from streaming sites. 

HBO Max temporarily removed 1939 civil war epic Gone With The Wind because of its ‘racial depictions’.

Little Britain has been removed from iPlayer because ‘times have changed’ since the comedy first aired, according to the BBC.

The series, starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas, has come under fire recently because of the use of blackface in some sketches.

A BBC spokeswoman 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 continue to look at what content is on offer as we always have done.’