Current Events > BBC admits to making woke cuts of classic shows

(+) Yeah! (+)

The BBC has purged mentions of disgraced stars Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris along with a number of racist and misogynistic jokes used in several of its classic radio comedies.

An anonymous Radio 4 Extra listener discovered the BBC had been quietly editing repeats of shows over the past few years to be more in keeping with social mores, the Times reported.

Labelling them as woke cuts, the listener found edits had been made to old episodes of Dads Army, Steptoe and Son and Im Sorry, Ill Read That Again.

In some cases entire sketches had been removed.

For example, a repeat of a 1970 episode of Im Sorry, Ill Read That Again, starring John Cleese and Bill Oddie, had a joke about a scantily clad woman removed.

In the original broadcast, Cleese, impersonating a BBC spokesman, said: We have noticed that it is possible to see right up to the girls knickers, owing to the shortness of their miniskirts, so weve asked the girls to drop them.

The BBC also stripped a mention of the n-word from a 1972 episode of the Ronnie Barker sketch show Lines From My Grandfathers Forehead.

A reference to African people being cannibals was also removed from a 1950 episode of Much Binding in the Marsh, a comedy set in a RAF station.

In a sketch from 1970, David Hatch adopted an Indian accent and was described as being browned off. The skit was removed.

Other deleted sketches included a spoof of Harriss songs, titled Rolf Harriss Dirty Songbook.

A spokesman for the BBC said: Listeners enjoy a huge number of old comedies from the archives on 4 Extra and on occasion we edit some episodes so theyre suitable for broadcast today, including removing racially offensive language and stereotypes from decades ago, as the vast majority of our audience would expect.

Full Article: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/tv/bbc-makes-woke-cuts-to-archives-including-dad-s-army/ar-AAT26rL?ocid=entnewsntp

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/8/AAZiH8AAC2Oe.jpg

Maybe in 50 years they'll do a Breaking Bad cut where Hector does talk to the DEA and makes peace with Gus

I heard some shows got trigger warnings and were also cut. A double whammy.

Cheater87 posted...

I heard some shows got trigger warnings and were also cut. A double whammy.

Trigger warning:

https://youtu.be/Z0rlYSJQkyw

The BBC has purged mentions of disgraced stars Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris

This bit is fair next tbh.

I believe in most cases of historical media, that they should be seen as they were in their time. I don't like rewriting history

Zikten posted...

I believe in most cases of historical media, that they should be seen as they were in their time. I don't like rewriting history

Did you know Kite from dot Hack wields an NFT?

Jimmy Savile is before my time and always seemed like a creep

But Rolf Harris stings

I used to see Pet Rescue and him pop up on TV singing and stuff

UnfairRepresent posted...

Jimmy Savile is before my time and always seemed like a creep

But Rolf Harris stings

I used to see Pet Rescue and him pop up on TV singing and stuff

Jake the Peg was a freaking sleazy shit.

Kakapo posted...

Jake the Peg was a freaking sleazy shit.

Maybe but Fine Day and his cover of 2 Little Boys are classics

If they're being edited for broadcast, then fair next. Can't have the BBC airing sketches that casually use the N-word, obviously.

If they're being edited for "On Demand" services, that's more of a grey area. I'm in favour of archiving, so maybe viewers should be given the option of watching original and edited versions.

Xavier_On_High posted...

If they're being edited for broadcast, then fair next. Can't have the BBC airing sketches that casually use the N-word, obviously.

If they're being edited for "On Demand" services, that's more of a grey area. I'm in favour of archiving, so maybe viewers should be given the option of watching original and edited versions.

Who is this guy

in 50 years its gonna be offensive to even show your face in public, mark my words

Back_Stabbath posted...

in 50 years its gonna be offensive to even show your face in public, mark my words

marked

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


People Like Us was top tier stuff.

Understandable that it's not in circulation these days, though, as Langham was the main character, and I think being an absolute nonce is a fair reason to be cancelled.

What does this mean for Heil Honey I'm Home?

For example, a repeat of a 1970 episode of Im Sorry, Ill Read That Again, starring John Cleese and Bill Oddie, had a joke about a scantily clad woman removed.

I weep for the future.

Are they doing this to distract from the whole transphobia thing?

yes probably

If you're that upset just buy the unedited versions.

It's not like shows haven't been cut for time since the dawn of entertainment...

I'm kinda stuck in the middle.

Both preserve them in history and moderate them for today I suppose?

BBC is notoriously bad at preserving media aren't they? Like recording over tapes and stuff?

Juhanor posted...

BBC is notoriously bad at preserving media aren't they? Like recording over tapes and stuff?

Yep, until the dawn of VHS the Beeb saw little commercial potential in preserving old shows for future audiences.

These shouldn't happen, but if they did happen they shouldn't be the default, but if they were the default, I 100% will die on the hill that the original cut should always be available alongside the "woke-cut".

Whatever means of distribution you have can have a "woke-mode" it can even have it on by default (though I think that's dumb), but every service needs to provide the ability to turn it off.

History and entertainment happened how it happened, and pretending otherwise is wrong.

And if a viewer cannot handle shows that upset them, the viewer can choose to not watch the shows.

Criminalt posted...

Yep, until the dawn of VHS the Beeb saw little commercial potential in preserving old shows for future audiences.

To be fair to the Beeb (and as a Doctor Who fan still left with a gap of 90+ episodes in the bank because of it, I kinda hate defending the wiping of their archives), film is/was expensive, and at a time when home recording wasn't a thing, let alone selling videos/dvds, and when even showing repeats was pretty rare, it made sense to reuse film rather than always buying in fresh (bear in mind the BBC isn't a publicly funded service rather than your typical commercial TV station, so the optics of them spending unnecessary money are worse than, say, ITV.)

Tom Clark posted...

and as a Doctor Who fan still left with a gap of 90+ episodes in the bank because of it

I'd like to have seen The Web of Fear.

Criminalt posted...

I'd like to have seen The Web of Fear.

At least there's only one episode of that missing now, rather than all 6.

Weirdly, despite their respective reputations before their discovery, I actually ended up rating Enemy higher than Web when they came to DVD.

Tom Clark posted...

At least there's only one episode of that missing now, rather than all 6.

Ooh, things have clearly changed since I last heard, then!

Criminalt posted...

Ooh, things have clearly changed since I last heard, then!

Aye, Enemy Of The World and Web Of Fear were found about ten years ago.

They actually found all six episodes of both, but by the time they went to collect them Episode 3 of Web had been "lost" again (read: stolen). They reconstructed Web part 3 from telesnaps and released the stories on DVD around the 50th anniversary (and an animated version of the missing episode was released last Summer).

To date, they're still the most recent found episodes, although there's a guy at the moment claiming that copies of 17 full stories from seasons 1-5 have been tracked down in an unnamed country in the Middle East (which by the laws of averages would mean that would contain some missing episodes, as that's about one in three stories from that era)... but he reckons that negotiations are being held up for "political reasons", so it's almost certain that he's a bit of a crackpot (I highly doubt that Saudi Arabia would be holding The Highlanders Episode 4 to ransom until people stop talking about Khashoggi, for example)

UnfairRepresent posted...

An anonymous Radio 4 Extra listener discovered the BBC had been quietly editing repeats of shows over the past few years to be more in keeping with social mores, the Times reported.

That's pretty fucked up.

Tom Clark posted...

(I highly doubt that Saudi Arabia would be holding The Highlanders Episode 4 to ransom until people stop talking about Khashoggi, for example)

Or that Saudi Arabia's military involvement in the Yemeni civil war was sparked by rumours that a complete set of The Daleks' Master Plan had been found in a garage in Sana'a.

I think the original cut should always be avaliable.

The original cut isn't erased. They're just making a new cut that they can play during the day on radio. People talk like it's a choice between "play the original" and "play the edited version", but realistically it's probably more "play the edited version" or "don't play it at all".

FurryPhilosifer posted...

The original cut isn't erased. They're just making a new cut that they can play during the day on radio. People talk like it's a choice between "play the original" and "play the edited version", but realistically it's probably more "play the edited version" or "don't play it at all".

I know on netflix it is not possible to view the original cut of certain shows.

IShall_Run_Amok posted...

Are they doing this to distract from the whole transphobia thing?

yes probably

It is kinda funny how British media is all on the woke train EXCEPT in the case of transgenders.

AmericaTheBrave posted...

It is kinda funny how British media is all on the woke train EXCEPT in the case of transgenders.

It's been a long journey, along a very twisted and bumpy track, for the "woke train" to reach this far on questions of race and sexuality. Awareness of transgender issues has been slowly building up traction for only the last, I don't know, 10 years. It took decades (maybe fifty years) before most of the media, with varying degrees of willingness, learned the lessons of what was generally acceptable when it came to race; so it's going to take time.