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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
I find Gipsy's or Pikeys or what ever trash they are offencive. If they don't like the programme then don't lisson or watch it,
Posted by: tonybarbfiley on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseWho ever made this complaint should be prosecuted for wasting police time
Posted by: rgcar on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseSo what some people are being killed for no reason. We should leave the past behind and move on.
Posted by: haimi1602 on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseGet A life the Police have better things to do.
Posted by: anthony.cowell on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseWhat a joke !Boom ! Boom!
Posted by: balraj.sandhu1 on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseWhen you pay tax to live in this country then you have a right to complain
Posted by: jamez2000 on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseSo no more jokes about the English, Welsh, Irish or Scots then...guess there won't be many jokes at all before long. such a happy world!
Posted by: riddcowler on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseHi I don't look at Basil but I agree attention needs to be paid to respecting all groups of people and that includes all people even those we think it is "alright to make derogatory jokes about", easy targets in other words. Recently I was sent a "funny e-mail " which orginated from a country that is very sensitive about how people speak and treat them. It was not funny and very derogatory towards the Irish. If we respect ourselves we don't need to deride other groups of people. Thank you I want to be named 'Mary' not my full name as in the email Thank you.
Posted by: margarita.foley on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseWTF?!?! This is just plain stupid! How can they do this! I've always loved Basil Brush! They can not ban him!!!
Posted by: lion_queen on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuseWhat a joke !Boom ! Boom!
Posted by: balraj.sandhu1 on Mon Mar 17 01:28PM | Report abuse