Basil Brush in 'racist' gag row

Mon Mar 17 10:58AM by TV Editor

Basil Brush

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Basil Brush is being investigated after a complaint was made about an alleged racist joke in the puppet's BBC series.

A complaint was received by the police following a recent screening of an old episode that features the fox telling jokes about gypsies, reports Metro.

The episode, which was originally shown six years ago, features a sketch where a gypsy woman tries to sell Basil some wooden pegs.

A police spokesperson said: "We can confirm we have received a complaint about a TV show featuring Basil Brush from a member of the public in February. The complaint was logged as an incident of a racist nature."

Joseph Jones, a spokesperson for the Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network, said: "Racist abuse of black people is quite rightly no longer deemed acceptable, but when a comedian makes a joke on TV about pikeys or gypos, there's no comeback."

Did you see the offending episode? Do you think Basil should be banished from our screens?

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User comments

  • (1921)

    the fox should have known better !!!!!!

    Posted by: arfer on Tue Mar 18 12:14PM | Report abuse
  • (1922)

    If you changed the word traveller, gypo or pikey to black or asian I wonder how trivial this would be!!!!!!

    Posted by: teastwood101 on Tue Mar 18 12:53PM | Report abuse
  • (1923)

    no i didnt see this episode,but i think for the sake of a joke things have taken off fairly i think basil brush is excellent any group of people who arent 'normal' are made fun of fact of life!

    Posted by: l.baggot on Tue Mar 18 01:04PM | Report abuse
  • (1924)

    AS WITH ALL THOSE THEVING GIPSY @#$% THEY SHOULD ALL GO BACK TO IRELAND, THE ONLY REASION IT SO NICE THERE, IS THAT WE HAVE THEM OVER HERE.

    Posted by: ian.blackburn4 on Tue Mar 18 01:17PM | Report abuse
  • (1925)

    I CANT BELIEVE THE POLICE are serious must be another April 1st joke

    Posted by: linda.carter8 on Tue Mar 18 01:30PM | Report abuse
  • (1926)

    How can someone complain about a puppet fox on a kids show and yet there were no complaints about how PIKEY'S were portrayed in the film SNATCH????

    Posted by: patrick_85 on Tue Mar 18 01:34PM | Report abuse
  • (1927)

    it is outragious this country is too politacally correct black is black and white is white in my eyes . it is just a joke that people miss inturpret because they want to be heard !

    Posted by: newsone on Tue Mar 18 01:51PM | Report abuse
  • (1928)

    totally ridiculous...pc gone mad again!!!

    Posted by: michellehynds on Tue Mar 18 01:56PM | Report abuse
  • (1929)

    watch out tar baby it will be you next.

    Posted by: jv.grey on Tue Mar 18 01:59PM | Report abuse
  • (1930)

    dont ban basil brush hes not racist

    Posted by: liam1994 on Tue Mar 18 02:09PM | Report abuse