Binning Fawlty Towers does nothing to solve racism

We’ve done it. We’ve solved racism. And who’d have thought that all it would take was a few judicious edits to a much-loved British sitcom?

This is the news that UKTV, a BBC-owned streaming service, has removed and is reviewing an episode of Fawlty Towers because it contains racial slurs. ‘We regularly review older content to ensure it meets audience expectations and are particularly aware of the impact of outdated language’, UKTV said in a statement last night.

Of course, no one sane thinks this will do anything to help anyone. But the fact that it happened at all shows the consequences of allowing woke intolerance to run riot, as we have done in recent weeks.

‘The Germans’ is the most famous episode of the John Cleese-fronted series. In it, concussed hotelier Basil Fawlty, desperate not to offend his German guests, ends up shouting endlessly at them about the war before launching into a goose-stepping impression of Hitler.