BBC cuts 11 Mitchell and Webb sketches for anniversary return as Cleese objects
Eleven sketches have been cut from That Mitchell and Webb Look as the BBC brought the comedy back to iPlayer for its 20th anniversary.
The sketch show stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb and first aired two decades ago. The edited series is now streaming on BBC iPlayer, the BBC's on-demand service, after older episodes were prepared for re-release.
The cuts run deep. As many as 11 sketches were removed, according to Deadline. One self-referential sketch showed Mitchell and Webb in blackface, dark makeup used to imitate a Black person, while joking about whether blackface was appropriate.
Another removed sketch was a makeover-show parody with Webb and Olivia Colman. It involved a woman in a burqa who removes the garment to reveal Mitchell in blackface. A third showed Mitchell and Webb as English Civil War re-enactors who restage fighting between government forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a rebel militia, then halt it as racist.
The BBC said That Mitchell and Webb Look is a 20-year-old sketch show. In consultation with the programme makers, it said it included sketches that still work today and not ones that do not.
Cleese hit back. John Cleese criticised the decision on X, formerly Twitter, and described the edits as "social engineering".
He was responding to a post by actor James Dreyfus about the cuts. Cleese wrote: "The BBC knows what’s best for us. And some of us know what’s best for the BBC." He added that the BBC might be worth the licence fee, the annual household charge that funds the corporation in Britain, if it prioritised making great programmes ahead of social engineering.
The decision had earlier been called "classic overkill" by critics of the cuts, in a report by The Times. That criticism focused on the removal of sketches dealing with racism and racial stereotypes.
For viewers opening iPlayer, this means a shorter anniversary collection. The names on the cast list are unchanged, but some routines familiar from the original broadcast will not play.
