On Boxing Day, The Skimmer noted how the Catherine Tate Christmas Special with its orgy of swearing was hardly suitable for BBC1 on Christmas Day. Now, The Times reports that OFCOM is to investigate the show following a flurry of complaints from viewers about the “most offensive programme ever broadcast by the BBC on a Christmas Day”. Even Catherine Tate seems to have realised that things went too far, telling The Radio Times: “I don’t know how this Christmas special got so depraved because it isn’t what I set out to do”.
The BBC is standing by its decision, arguing that one of the character’s foul language “was fundamental to what makes her funny.” That may be. But it was a fundamental misjudgement by the BBC to broadcast a show that is reliant on the F word for laughs on Christmas day.
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