Little Britain has returned to the BBC's on-demand iPlayer service with some of the 'racist and bigoted' sketches left in.
The David Walliams and Matt Lucas comedy sketch show, which was a huge hit when it first ran on TV in the mid noughties, has come under fire in recent times over the content of the show, with BBC removing it from the streaming service over a blackface controversy.
Matt, 48, and David, 50, have seen the show return to the BBC but there have been a number of characters cut from the edited versions which will be available.
Thai bride Ting Tong Macadangdang, played by Matt, and Pastor Jesse King and Desiree DeVere, which saw David do blackface for both characters, have been axed from the comedy show's return.
Despite this and Auntie Beeb's assertion that the comedy "reflects the cultural landscape", there are many who believe that Little Britain should be consigned to comedy history, alongside 'racist' shows like Love Thy Neighbour from the 70s.
There are still many 'bigoted and racist' moments left in the edited versions of the shows and a BBC spokesperson has defended the decision to make the sketch show available again.
They said: " Little Britain has been made available to fans on BBC iPlayer following edits made to the series by Matt and David that better reflect the changes in the cultural landscape over the last twenty years since the show was first made.”
The half hour episodes have been cut to around 23 minutes in some circumstances and there will be a warning message before some episodes which will tell viewers there could be "discriminatory language".
There were some viewers who believe these cuts have not gone far enough and taking to Twitter, one wrote: “Can we just leave Little Britain in the comedy bin where it belongs next to Love Thy Neighbour? Or condense the episodes down including the genuinely good sketches and leaving out all the racism and transphobia.”
Among the tweets of disgust, there were a few who feel that the comedy is a reflection of the UK being "a multi-ethnic nation".
The Twitter user wrote: "I’m glad Little Britain is back but don’t agree with editing art to match modern standards of political correctness.
"(They) show our progress as a multi-ethnic nation and are part of our history.”
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