But audiences say it's OK to risk causing offence

The BBC has issued tough new guidelines on taste, which will apply to any new comedy programmes.

The clampdown means more swearing is likely to be exorcised – even after the 9pm watershed – while comedians making programmes will have to sit down with executives for a discussion about the ‘taste and tone’ of the show.

The move comes following a report into the ‘Manuelgate’ affair, in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand sparked a tabloid frenzy after leaving rude messages on Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs’s answerphone during a Radio 2 show.

The BBC’s new rules will guard against ‘malicious intrusion, intimidation and humiliation’ and want that such behaviour should ‘never be celebrated for the purposes of entertainment’.

Every programme will be hit by the new guidelines, but comedy and entertainment shows are likely to come under special scrutiny in case they have the potential to cause offence.

The Taste Standards Report also said that greater care should be taken when potentially edgy programmes transferred from BBC Two or BBC Three to the more family-friendly BBC One.

However, research carried out to help draw up the guidelines found the public wanted the corporation to pursue ‘creative risk’ – and accepted that sometimes that might mean causing offence.

More than 60 per cent of the 2,200 people surveyed agreed wit the statement ‘the BBC should not be afraid to show material that some people might find offensive’.

The report concluded: ‘The context in which potentially offensive content is placed is of paramount importance to audiences, as are judgments of quality. Both can make the difference between whether something is acceptable to audiences or not.’

Only this week, David Mitchell complained that fear of causing offence was stifling comedy, saying: ‘TV is harder to make at the moment and it feels like there is a lot of pressure from upstairs. I hope it blows over.’

Published: 24 Jun 2009