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

  • (1981)

    keep basil hes funny nothing will make me laugh if basil went off

    Posted by: mrsjjprice on Tue Mar 18 09:57PM | Report abuse
  • (1982)

    Petition to rename Basil Mohammed anyone?

    Posted by: clairemaddieson on Tue Mar 18 10:02PM | Report abuse
  • (1983)

    Basil for Primeminister..........

    Posted by: darrellmills on Tue Mar 18 10:17PM | Report abuse
  • (1984)

    It's time we all grew up and recognised the difference between real racism whereby people actually suffer hardship, exclusion, threats to their life and livelihood, and what is often no more than being unaware of political correctness. Do we really think there was an intention to insult anyone?

    Posted by: david.silversides on Tue Mar 18 11:07PM | Report abuse
  • (1985)

    h

    Posted by: godfrey.jones on Tue Mar 18 11:09PM | Report abuse
  • (1986)

    Basil has been making me laugh for nearly 40 years. Get a Life, we are becoming too politically correct, and the UK is beginning to fall apart. Long Live Basil!

    Posted by: godfrey.jones on Tue Mar 18 11:12PM | Report abuse
  • (1987)

    get alife joseph

    Posted by: murrayrussell on Tue Mar 18 11:13PM | Report abuse
  • (1988)

    terrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!! leave basil alone

    Posted by: kirstycarlyle on Tue Mar 18 11:20PM | Report abuse
  • (1989)

    can u really picture this guy walking it to the police station "hi i want to make a complaint about a stuffed fox with a hand up its a@@e" (sorry if i offended stuffed foxes every where)

    Posted by: newton101 on Tue Mar 18 11:20PM | Report abuse
  • (1990)

    you are all right who said ITS A PUPPET funny thats funny i think basil should go in the hall of fame he is an icon

    Posted by: andi369 on Wed Mar 19 12:19AM | Report abuse