Would You Want Classic Comedies Such As Faulty Towers,ofah,till Death Us Do Part,to Carry A Racist Warning?

[Bobbisox1]

I realise it was a different era but wouldn’t just switching it over/off suffice if it offends you?

[Old_Geezer]

No. We pander enough to snowflakes as it is.

[anneasquith]

No.

[saintpeter48]

Bigbad ....... that particular episode was shown last night on GOLD, it was unedited and showed the Major in all his glory comparing 'N******' to 'W***', also Basil telling the 'stupid krauts' to shut up.
It was of its time but I still found it funny, if a little uncomfortable to watch.

[naomi24]

Ken at 10:57, something similar happened with 'Allo 'Allo!. The French got rather upset by the portrayal of their countrymen as pretty stupid and so, for French audiences, Rene & Co became Belgian. The French don't seem to have noticed that the British and the Germans in the series were none too bright either. Loved that programme. So utterly daft - and I do love daft!

[Bigbad]

Saintpeter48.
Well, you (pleasantly)surprise me!

In my youth, I was never keen on It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, mostly because of Windsor Davies bellowing “shut up” constantly, but I saw a clip of it a while back, where he called them “a bunch of p**fs” and thought it hilarious.
No longer shown, I believe.

[ToraToraTora]

no, and for what it's worth in all those shows it's the "racist" that generally ends up the butt of the episode.

[teacake44]

It may be the reason we no longer have any good comedies on TV due to the stupid gagging, Or we no longer have any good comedy writers. Its a certain fact that TV was a lot more fun then, and it seems that past comedy is all we have left to hang on to.

[jackthehat]

The sole warning they should contain is;
"Hasn't aged well....nowhere near as funny as you remember."

[Ken4155]

Just been reading that, at first, Fawlty Towers was met with little enthusiasm by the 'critics'. One such, Richard Ingrams, wrote a particularly caustic piece only for John Cleese to gain revenge by writing an episode in Series 2 in which an hotel guest is caught in his room with a blow up doll. The guest's name, of course, was Mr Ingrams :-) :-) :-)
Martin Scorsese, a big fan of the show, rates the 'The Germans' episode as the best ever and says that Cleese's impersonation of Hitler was so tasteless it was hilarious.
I don't know (but i will be checking) if all 12 episodes are available on Netflix but i believe they are available to download on itunes.

[ToraToraTora]

how did they ever get allo allo to work in France etc, I mean the basis of the show is people using the forign accent but speaking English, so how do they get it to work, I mean Rene would be speaking French in a French accent and the Germans would be speaking French in a German accent.

[ToraToraTora]

... then there is officer crab Tree, "good moaning"!

[Bobbisox1]

@JTH, but it is !

[emmie]

i would just switch off as you said if it was offensive.
i miss some shows because they are construed as racist.

[ToraToraTora]

what about "it ain't half hot mum"! could be construed as both racist and homophibic, though it's not clear if any of the concert party are actually gay.

[zebo]

Only if we apply it to all forms of entertainment, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales would need one for a start! People do need to grow up, silly moos.

[woofgang]

I agree with JTH. They are of their time...and even of their time I think the objective was to show up prejudice and racism and not support it, although as I understand it not terribly successfully. I am not big on banning historical books or films because I think its easy to forget how things were.

[pixie374]

I agree with jth, too. I started watching from the beginning of ofah quite recently. It is still funny... but some parts are more cringey than funny now. I think "hasn't aged well" would be the best description. At least with a warning, nobody can complain and get them removed.

[hereIam]

No, No a thousand times no !! I would love to see repeats of OFAH as it was my fave at the time, but I don't have Gold. I'm always looking out for it on Freeview. Have seen a few repeats when Freeview showed the odd one or two and they have well stood the test of time.

[Bobbisox1]

I suppose it depends on what you see in them as offensive, as someone on here said the term White Honky was used a lot in Love Thy Neighbour, it didn't offend me then and it wouldn't now

[emmie]

Love they neighbour was never a favourite, but it was often the white neighbour who came off worse in the debates, arguments.