Netflix pulled the Matt Lucas and David Walliams series Little Britain on Friday, and the BBC and Britbox followed suit on Monday. A BBC spokesperson said: "There's a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review. Times have changed since Little Britain first aired in 2003 so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer."
This comes after rumours earlier in the year that the show was coming back, but it has zero place in 2020.
Little Britain, the hit BBC comedy co-created by David Walliams and Matt Lucas, is rumoured to be coming back 12 years after its last series. Itās the show that gave us Vicky Pollard, complete with all her āyeah but, no butā gags, and a shameless leader of āFat Fightersā, Majorie Dawes. David Walliams confirmed the comeback in an interview with The Sun, saying "There will definitely be some more Little Britain coming, I can't say when exactly but at the right time and place. It was fun coming back for radio because that's where we started."
The premise was a simple, boilerplate sketch show: a routine set of characters, with specific catchphrases, were placed in different scenarios, broken up with the odd one-off sketch. The popularity of the show was based on 'shock factor', and the more shocking it became, the more popular it was. Not unlike the Gavin and Stacey comeback, it seems 2020 is the year of early 00ās TV having a revival. But, thereās one key difference - Little Britain was built on punching-down comedy, taking the mick out of societyās most vulnerable people. It included blackface, and making fun of trans women and people with disabilities, to name a few.
Matt Lucas previously told The Big Issue that if the show returned, it would have to change: "Society has moved on a lot since then and my own views have evolved.ā But, if that's the case, then what would it even look like? Almost every character was offensive. Vicky Pollard made fun of the working class, Ting Tong (a Thai bride) and Desiree (a luxury obsessed obese black woman) were both blatantly racist, and Daffyd was a gay character seeped in homophobic stereotypes. The jokes didnāt just cross lines, it rubbed them out and then pissed on them; but these jokes werenāt aimed at everyone - only the marginalised. Which, with a 2020 view, isnāt acceptable.
This isnāt PC culture gone mad, or a woke generation being too sensitive - itās about leaving behind an era we should all be ashamed of. Given Brexit, Trump and the rise of white nationalism, making a racist, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic or classist joke isnāt (and, let's be honest, never was) funny. Itās dangerous. Humour normalises thoughts and behaviours, and we definitely donāt need bigotry any more normalised then it already is. Comedy is supposed to take risks, and mocking the already most-mocked isnāt risky, itās bullying. I'm sure Matt and David would argue that it was satire, intended to mock the small-minded people of Britain who view anyone considered 'different' as
these grotesque characters. But that's, put bluntly, untrue. It didn't challenge any stereotypes, it reinforced them. It didn't make fun of the bigots, it made fun of the disadvantaged.
However, given the fact The Sun has already written an article asking if Little Britain 'will it fall foul of PC killjoys?', I have a sneaking suspicion that not everyone will agree with me. When I rewatch shows like Sex and The City and Friends , I'm surprised that we all loved them so much - what, with the complete lack of diversity and crude stereotypes. So, when considering Little Britain, a show that wasn't just 'of a time' but one that was shocking, even then, it's hard to imagine why on earth it needs a comeback? Let sleeping dogs lie, and leave TV that hasn't aged well in the past. Little Britain first aired in February 2003, which really isn't that long ago. Certainly not long ago enough for us to give it a haul pass.
