BBC puts ‘woke’ warning message on episodes of Blackadder and Fresh Prince of Bel Air warning of ‘discriminatory language which some viewers may find offensive’
- Blackadder, first aired in 1983, uses racial slurs about black and Spanish people
- The sitcom will now have a warning message at the start of the episodes
- The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Reunion special will also carry a content message
- The Royle Family, Dad’s Army and Fawlty Towers have ‘woke’ warnings
The BBC has slapped warnings on episodes of Blackadder and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air because of jokes which viewers may find offensive.
Fans watching the comedies on iPlayer will now be greeted with a message at the start of the offending episodes.
Blackadder, first aired in 1983, uses a slur in its second episode which the BBC decided warrants the warning.
Blackadder, first aired in 1983, uses a slur in its second episode which the BBC decided warrants a content warning
In the episode, Rowan Atkinson’s character clashes with Dougal MacAngus who has just returned from the Crusades and is awarded Blackadder’s land as a result of his good service.
Blackadder says: ‘You come in here fresh from slaughtering a couple of Chocos when their backs were turned and you think you can upset the harmony of a whole kingdom.’
The slur, derived from chocolate to describe a black person’s skin colour, landed football pundit Richard Keys in trouble when he used it to describe a player in 2011.
Another episode of the sitcom also uses a derogatory term for a Spaniard.
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Reunion episode, filmed last year, also contains a warning at the start of the show.
The message says: ‘Contains discriminatory language which some viewers may find offensive.’
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Reunion episode, filmed last year, also contains a warning at the start of the show
Rebecca Ryan, campaign director at Defund the BBC, told The Sun: ‘The corporation is clearly committed to only representing the third of the country who support these moves whilst expecting the rest of us to keep paying.
‘The BBC is pressing on with “campaign woke”, which will only hurry along the inevitable.’
The BBC said: ‘It’s to tell viewers when a show includes something that may be offensive, inappropriate or outdated.’
Last month, it was revealed that the Royle Family has also been given a warning for discriminatory language in an episode including Jim Royle using a ‘nancy boy’ slur.
The third episode of the second series, which first aired on 7 Oct 1999, sees Ricky Tomlinson’s disagreeable character watching an episode of Changing Rooms, during which he calls Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen a ‘nancy boy’.
It comes following similar warnings on shows including Fawlty Towers and Dad’s Army.
A BBC representative told MailOnline at the time: ‘Some older programmes on occasion contain language that some viewers find offensive, inappropriate or which have now fallen out of use, and for that reason, we do make that clear on iPlayer and elsewhere.’