Actor John Cleese has slammed the decision to remove an episode of Fawlty Towers from an on-demand streaming service owned by the BBC, claiming if people can’t see they weren’t supporting the racist views of his character in the show, they are stupid.
The episode in question, was titled ‘The Germans, and was taken down on Thursday amid ongoing debate around the removal of outdated or offensive content from entertainment platforms, as support for the Black Lives Matter movement both in Australia and overseas continues to grow.
UKTV, which is run by the British public broadcaster, confirmed the decision was made to pull the final episode of the first season because it contains racial slurs. However, the on-demand service went on to say that it’s still considering its option about whether to permanently remove the episode.
The announcement caused a lot of tension across the world, with people divided over whether or not it was the right decision to make. And now, actor John Cleese, who played the main character on the show Basil Fawlty, has shared his own views on the axing of the episode.
Speaking exclusively to The Sydney Morning Herald this week, the 80-year-old said people have very different senses of humour and just because his character said certain things, doesn’t mean he agrees with those views.
“Some of them understand that if you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of you’re not broadcasting their views, you’re making fun of them,” he told the publication. “The Major was an old fossil left over from decades before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them. If they can’t see that, if people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?”
The actor went on to say that Fawlty Towers has provided many people with a “great deal of happiness” over the years and questioned why anyone would want to stop that. He said it reminds him of the definition of a Scottish Presbyterian, “as someone who has a nasty, sneaking feeling that someone, somewhere, is having a good time”.
Fawlty Towers – which ran from 1975 to 1979 – starred John Cleese as cynical hotel proprietor Basil Fawlty. The episode in question sees Basil goose-stepping around the fictional hotel in Torquay, and is responsible for coining the iconic phrase “Don’t mention the war!”
However, it is comments made by recurring character Major Gowen during the episode that led to its removal. While the racial terms are often removed by broadcasters nowadays, the original version of the episode features a scene in which Gowen references the West Indies cricket team.
Viewers reacted to the news online, with many fans of the show questioning the decision, while others agreed with UKTV’s stance. One user wrote on Twitter: “Surprised they haven’t pulled the rest of #fawltytowers – after all the way Basil treated Manuel has to be racist or involved some racist slurs.”
However another user commented: “Yes. Let’s pretend it never happened. Genius.” While another said: “I agree, with comedy it should be taken into account it’s fictional and a different time, I don’t want to loose Ab Fab, French & Saunders, Gimme Gimme Gimme etc. It’s an important part of my gay culture and history I think context and a statement at the beginning would be fine.”