Little Britain has been removed from all UK streaming platforms due to concerns about the use of blackface by its two stars, David Walliams and Matt Lucas. The comedy sketch show, which first aired in 2003 on BBC Three, has been removed from Netflix, BritBox and BBC iPlayer – with the pair’s follow up, Come Fly With Me, also taken down by Netflix for the same reason.
Little Britain has long been the subject of controversy for material including its “I’m a lady” sketches, where the pair don women’s clothes and facial hair, its depiction of “portly Thai bride” Ting Tong – played by Lucas – and Desiree DeVere, a black woman played by Walliams in full blackface.
The show has come under fire again recently amid renewed focus on issues of race and representation, at a time when Black Lives Matter protests are taking place across the globe.
The BBC confirmed to the Daily Mail, who first reported the story, that the show has been taken down as “times have changed”. “There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review,” said a spokesperson for the broadcaster. “Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.”
Lucas, set to be the new host of Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, has previously expressed regret about some of the characters in the show. In a 2017 interview with the Big Issue, he said it was “lazy” to “get a laugh just by playing black characters”.
“If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters,” he said. “Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now.”
The pair most recently revived the show, which began on radio in 2000, for a short appearance on the BBC’s Big Night In. They also did a radio special in 2019. However, Walliams agreed with his co-creator, that while Little Britain may return again, it has to move with the times, saying he would “definitely do it differently” now.
BritBox, the streaming service which is a collaboration between the BBC and ITV, echoed the BBC statement, saying: “Times have changed since Little Britain first aired, so it is not currently available on BritBox. Come Fly With Me has not been available on the service for six months.”
A spokesperson for Netflix told the Guardian that the streaming giant had “no comment but can confirm that we removed both titles on Friday last week”.
The move comes after comedian Leigh Francis last week issued an apology for playing black celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Trisha Goddard and Craig David, on his sketch show Bo Selecta.
Francis, better known as Keith Lemon, said he had “done a lot of talking and learning” .
“Back in 2002 I did a show called Bo’ Selecta, I portrayed many black people,” he said. “Back then I didn’t think anything about it, people didn’t say anything, I’m not going to blame other people … I didn’t realise how offensive it was back then.”