French & Saunders rapped over 'decapitation'

First it was Billy Connolly, now French and Saunders have landed in trouble for being insensitive about the beheading of British hostage Ken Bigley.

Although the double act made no direct reference to the murdered contractor, the BBC’s programme complaints unit have rapped them for showing a decapitation on their prime-time show.

The duo had been spoofing the extreme violence in Quentin Tarantino’s film Kill Bill with a sword-fighting sequence that culminated in a decapitation.

After the show was aired on BBC1 on October 29 last year, three week’s after Mr Bigley’s death in Iraq, five viewers complained that the sketch was tasteless in the light of such events.

In its findings, published today, the complaints unit ruled that the timing of the parody was ill-judged, and berated the production team for incorrectly filling in the paperwork that would have highlighted the sensitive sketch to senior management.

Upholding the complaint, the unit concluded: ‘In normal circumstances, it would have been acceptable in the context of this series. However, it was a mistake to show it at a time when the plight of hostages in Iraq was at the forefront of the public mind.’

Published: 3 May 2005