Asylum writers: It's not about Assange

Denials after the row over tweet

The writers of the new BBC comedy Asylum have audaciously claimed that it was NOT inspired by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after all.

The BBC Four sitcom revolves around a whistleblower holed up in the London embassy of a South American country to escape extradition to America – just like Assange.

But writers Peter Bowden and Thom Phipps distanced themselves from any similarities following the row over a tweet the Phipps sent, calling for the police to publicly shoot Assange in the head in Trafalgar Square.

The message, posted in 2012 but since deleted and dismissed as a joke, angered Assange's supporters, who queried whether the post made Phipps a suitable person to write about the topic.

But to deflect criticism, the pair have been insisting their show is not about the Wikileaks founder, butJózsef Mindszenty, a Hungarian archbishop who stood up against Nazis and Communists, and had to seek asylum in the American embassy in Budapest for 15 years from 1956 to escape the Soviet regime.

In response to Chortle's article about the controversy, Bowden tweeted: 'You may see Assange. You're free to see Assange. The author's dead, I guess. But that's not what I wrote and you'd be wrong.

He added: 'Asylum isn't even about Assange. We wrote it about József Mindszenty, who hid from the Soviets in a US embassy for 15 years'

The instance that the comedy is not based on Assange will come as news to many involved in the production – with even BBC News reporting 'Assange's prolonged sojourn at the Ecuadorian embassy in London has inspired a new BBC Four sitcom.' The rest of the media followed the same line when the show was announced in November.

And last weekend, Asylum co-star and co-creator Kayvan Novak said: 'I thought there's a trend of these whistleblowers getting stuck in various situations and a Julian Assange-like character in an embassy being used as a pawn between America and everyone else could be hilarious' He added that there was 'debate' about making the lead character Dan Hern, as played by Ben Miller, the actual Assange.

When it was suggested switching the focus to Mindszenty was a ruse to avoid any possible consequences, Bowden tweeted: 'How dare they. I won't have anyone implying I didn't write a sitcom about a 1950s Hungarian cardinal.'

He even produced an image which they say is the front page of the first draft of a script about the Hungarian hero, which pre-dates Assange going into the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 – by one day.

Despite the light-hearted nature of their denials, Phipps yesterday tweeted to Chortle to ask us to update our story to reflect their stance.

The row stems from a tweet he sent two months after Assange was given political asylum in June 2012, in which he said: If the met [police] want to regain my trust they should drag Assange out the embassy + shoot him in the back of th head in the middle of traf square.'

Phipps subsequently said: 'It was something I tweeted over two years ago and it was clearly a joke.'

However, backers of Assange took the issue more seriously, and have complained to the BBC about its 'shameful' decision to employ Phipps.

One of them, Emmy Butlin, said Phipps 'advocated for the public extrajudicial assassination' of the Wikileaks founder and wanted to know why the BBC would 'employ someone with extreme views' to write the comedy.

The Corporation's complaints department wrote back saying: 'Unfortunately Mr Philip's [sic] is not a BBC member of staff and is not representing the BBC. Therefore we will not be commenting on Twitter posts made by third parties.'

The comedy, also starring Justin Demri-Burns as internet pirate Ludo Backslash, will air on February 9 as part of the BBC's Taking Liberties season, marking 800 years since Magna Carta.