Little Britain removed from BBC, Netflix and BritBox over blackface sketches

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Matt Lucas and David Walliams' 2003-07 BBC British mockumentary comedy series Little Britain and its 2010-11 follow-up Come Fly with Me have been yanked from BBC's iPlayer, Netflix and BritBox amid the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyd's killing. Little Britain featured a character named Desiree DeVere, a black woman played by Walliams in full blackface. Come Fly With Me had a character named Precious Little, a black cafe worker played by Lucas in full blackface. "There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review," the BBC said in a statement. "Times have changed since Little Britain first aired so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.” BritBox added: “Times have changed since Little Britain first aired, so it is not currently available on BritBox. Come Fly With Me has not been available on the service for six months.” Last year, Lucas was called out on his use of blackface after he slammed the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club for their use of an anti-Semitic slur. Lucas responded to the criticism, saying: "I hear you. I’ve reflected and evolved." In a 2017 interview, Lucas said he wouldn't use blackface if he were to remake Little Britain. "If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites," he said. "I wouldn’t play black characters. 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. Society has moved on a lot since then and my own views have evolved. There was no bad intent there – the only thing you could accuse us of was greed. We just wanted to show off about what a diverse bunch of people we could play."