BBC Censors Fawlty Towers in Great Britain
New Airings Adjusted to Modern Times

Last week, an episode of the 70's cult series Fawlty Towers starring John Cleese was censored in Britain. Racist comments were removed. Of course, nobody wants this to be understood as an assumption that the makers and actors of the series are racists. It were just the words that a character, who's far from politically correct in general, uses in the series.

However, this has become quite a controversy that the BBC thinks that its public shouldn't endure after 30 years. The episode "The Germans" now misses a segment where a Major comments on a cricket game he attended with his wife in India:

"The strange thing was, throughout the morning she kept referring to the Indians as niggers. “No, no, no,” I said, “the niggers are the West Indians. These people are wogs.”

The original airing from 1975 and the DVD contain the scene in its uncensored form while the TV will show it censored for its modern family-based audience from now on.

Many people find it irritating since the whole episode contains hostility towards foreigners and the old Major's racist comments were clearly visible as satire even back in the 70's. Today, it seems that satire is a bit harder to stomach. Even the "best British series of all time" (according to many critics) is not protected against censorship.

 

View the uncensored scene here: