The series was one of many which was removed by the streamer back in 2020
An Iconic BBC comedy creator has called for ‘healthier’ censorship after Netflix pulled a beloved series from their service several years ago. During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the streaming giant removed a number of UK programmes due to scenes which were likely to cause offence to viewers.
The first of these programmes to be removed was Little Britain, which was also removed from BritBox and BBC iPlayer, due to concerns about the use of blackface by stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas. Shortly after this, both The Mighty Boosh and The League of Gentlemen were removed from Netflix due their use of blackface.
The latter saw concerns about the use of blackface in the sketch featuring circus ringmaster Papa Lazarou, who kidnapped women on the programme and became famous for his catchphrase ‘your my wife now’.
League of Gentlemen co-creator, co-writer and actor Mark Gatiss has now backed trigger warnings on old TV shows and movies because it allows them to keep being broadcast rather than be pulled from schedules.
The Sherlock co-creator believes that sort of censorship is harmful and it is better to allow viewers to make their own minds up about what they are watching after reading a disclaimer.
Appearing on the Scarred For Life podcast, he said: “Talking Pictures TV, before they show an old film, they just show a little disclaimer which says, ‘This reflects the attitudes of the time’, and then you watch the film.
“It’s a healthier way of looking at anything. If you pretend it never happened, it’s like everything was some strange showbiz utopia. I think it’s much more important to talk about it then to just put it in a box and pretend it never happened.”
Originally running from 1999 to 2002 on the BBC, The League of Gentlemen was praised for combining dark humour and horror. It was a cult hit thanks to characters like transsexual taxi driver Barbara, diabolical butcher Hilary Briss and murderous married siblings Edward and Tubbs.
Gatiss created the programme with Jeremy Dyson, and Inside No. 9 duo Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.
“I just thank my lucky stars that it happened, because in that sliding doors sort of way it could easily have not, it’s just luck.
“We were drawn together by our shared sense of humour and a lot of that was to do with our shared love of horror films and the same character comedy. My god, it was a very lucky day,” he said.
Despite Netflix pulling the series, the BBC kept the series on their iPlayer streaming service, with all three seasons and the anniversary specials avalible to stream for free.