WI protest over Saunders sitcom

Ros Knight, secretary of the Avon Federation of Women's Institutes, said: ‘It is very poor taste. I'd like to see it taken off the air’

‘I've never seen anything like it. It plays to the worst side of people's nature and I don't like it at all.

‘I can't imagine they will make another series. It's supposed to be a comedy but it's not funny.’

Avon WI member Mary Taylor added: ‘The WI is being ridiculed by a bunch of ignorant, vulgar women.’

Ms Knight also told the Bristol Evening Post it could stop new members signing up.

‘It doesn't do us any favours at all,’ she said. ‘People who don't know anything about us will think that is what it is like – and it isn't.’

The six-part BBC One series, starring Dawn French and Joanna Lumley, features the fictional Clatterfield Ladies' Guild – but Ms Knight says it is clearly a pop at the WI.

But BBC bosses are likely to be more persuaded by the ratings. The debut episode attracted an impressive 6.7 million viewers

And not every WI member is offended. Jam And Jerusalem producers used women who belonged to the group in the Devon village of North Tawton as extras.

At the time of filming, Marion North, who has been a member of that group for 25 years, told the BBC: ‘If we can't laugh at ourselves, then it's a great shame. They are having an affectionate giggle at us.’

It is not the first time a BBC comedy has offended the WI. The Little Britain sketches featuring David Walliams as a blue-rinse woman prone to projectile vomiting had to remove references to the organisation following complaints.

Published: 4 Dec 2006