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BBC cuts its non-PC classic radio comedies

THE BBC has been accused of ‘rewriting history’ after editing classic radio comedies to remove material now perceived as politically incorrect.

Repeats of hit shows including Dad’s Army, Steptoe And Son and I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again on BBC Radio 4 Extra have been altered, sometimes with entire sketches removed.

Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London, described the move as ‘appalling’ and he suggested the BBC was ‘rewriting history’.

‘They’re part of history. They show us what society was like then. I’d rather we didn’t forget,’ he tweeted.

The changes were documented by an anonymous Radio 4 Extra listener, who branded them ‘woke cuts’, according to The Times.

I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again – a sketch show starring John Cleese, Bill Oddie and other Cambridge Footlights graduates – is thought to have received the most edits.

A repeat of a 1970 episode was altered to remove a joke from Cleese about scantily-clad women on Top Of The Pops.

Impersonating a BBC spokesman, Cleese said in the original recording: ‘We have noticed that it is possible to see right up to the girls’ knickers, owing to the shortness of their miniskirts, so we’ve asked the girls to drop them.’

Meanwhile, a repeat of a 1971 radio episode of Steptoe And Son was edited to remove ‘poofy’ from a line in which Wilfrid Brambell,

playing Albert Steptoe, said: ‘You’re carrying on like some poofy Victorian poet.’

A similar cut was made to a 1974 Dad’s Army episode, during which

Corporal Jones, played by Clive Dunn, referred to Chinese people as ‘yellow friends’.

Other revisions removed references to disgraced stars Jimmy

Savile and Rolf Harris. A BBC spokesman said: ‘Listeners enjoy a huge number of old comedies from the archives on 4 Extra. On occasion we edit some episodes so

they’re suitable for broadcast today, including removing racially offensive language and stereotypes from decades ago, as the vast majority of our audience would expect.’