Radio 4 comedy rapped

Producers of Radio 4 comedy quiz The 99p Challenge have been rapped for their use of the word ‘pikey’.

Two listeners complained to the BBC’s Programme Complaints Unit that the word was a derogatory term for a gypsy.

They also said that other comments on the panel show, hosted by Sue Perkins and with regular guests including Armando Iannucci and Peter Serafinowicz, were disparaging towards gypsies.

The unit agreed that the term was offensive, and told producers to beware of using it even in jest.

In their finding they said: “Pikey is now also used to describe a follower of a certain kind of urban youth style, and that was the intended meaning.

“But the offensiveness attaching to the longer-established meaning is still such that even innocently intended uses of the term are likely to be out of place, as in this instance.

“Producers were reminded of the offensiveness attaching to the term, despite its acquisition of a new meaning.”

Published: 8 Feb 2005