Matt Lucas and David Walliams “very sorry” for Little Britain blackface
Matt Lucas and David Walliams have said they’re “very sorry” for past Little Britain sketches.
The pair both made statements on social media after Little Britain was removed from a variety of catch up services including BBC’s own iPlayer.
David said on Twitter: “Matt & I have both spoken publicly in recent years of our regret that we played characters of other races. Once again we want to make it clear that it was wrong & we are very sorry.”
Matt echoed: “David and I have both spoken publicly in recent years of our regret that we played characters of other races. Once again we want to make it clear that it was wrong and we are very sorry.”
Little Britain first started on Radio 4 in 2000 before moving to screen on BBC Three and later BBC One.
Episodes of the series, which last aired in 2007, have been pulled from streaming services iPlayer, Netflix and BritBox.
The BBC said in a statement: “There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review
“Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.”
Matt previously expressed regret over some of the older sketches in an interview with the Big Issue in 2017.
“If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters,” he said at the time. “Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now.”
