Eleven comedy sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look have been removed from BBC iPlayer after the corporation deemed them unsuitable for modern audiences.
The Bafta-winning sketch show, which featured David Mitchell and Robert Webb across four series from 2006 to 2010, was recently made available on the streaming platform to celebrate its 20th anniversary, but not in its entirety.
A BBC spokesperson said: “This is a 20-year-old sketch show; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones that still work today and not the ones that don’t.”
The programme grew out of a Radio 4 series called That Mitchell and Webb Sound, which launched in 2003. Both performers had already become household names through Channel 4’s Peep Show.
Comedy sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look have been removed from BBC iPlayer
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Neither Mr Mitchell nor Mr Webb has yet commented publicly on the cuts.
According to The Times, the excised material includes a sketch in which the comedy duo satirised racism whilst wearing blackface, as well as a scene featuring war re-enactors in similar make-up.
A segment depicting a contestant on a makeover programme wearing a burka was also among those pulled, alongside a sketch about a “tribe” inhabiting a garden centre.
Further removed content reportedly includes a joke referencing Jimmy Savile, an impersonation of the late celebrity chef Gary Rhodes making homophobic remarks, a rude portrayal of Gandhi and material involving Bill Oddie.
That Mitchell and Webb Look
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The show’s most beloved recurring segments, including Numberwang, Hennimore, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, and The Event, remain intact on the platform.
Dom Joly, the Trigger Happy TV comedian, condemned the BBC’s decision as “classic BBC overkill” and “hysterical censorship.”
“I totally get it if the BBC is putting out something really racist, which is laughing at and encouraging other people to feel that it’s okay to do that,” Mr Joly told The Times.
“But it’s so clear that Mitchell and Webb are not doing that. Their intent was not to be racist.”
David Mitchell and Robert Webb in 2007
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Rather than removing the sketches entirely, Mr Joly suggested the corporation could have placed a warning before the content, though he acknowledged even that approach felt “so patronising.”
The BBC’s statement did not clarify whether Mr Mitchell and Mr Webb themselves were part of the consultation process that led to the material being dropped.
Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of Hat Trick Productions, the company behind Have I Got News For You, offered a more measured view, saying he could understand both sides of the argument.
“The BBC are in an impossible position,” Mr Mulville said, noting that comedy has traditionally sought to “shine a light on bigotry in order to laugh at it.”
Comedian Dom Joly condemned the decision as ‘classic BBC overkill’
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He argued that social media had eroded “nuance in debate” to the point where “you couldn’t even pitch that show these days.”
Mr Mulville said he “personally wouldn’t censor anything” but conceded that the blackface material “is a problem.”
The removals echo the earlier decision to pull Matt Lucas and David Walliams’s Little Britain from both iPlayer and Netflix following renewed objections to certain characters.
Unedited episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look remain accessible on Sky and NOW, preceded by content warnings.
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