BBC's response to complaint against 'anti-Liverpool' gag

The BBC Trust has declined to intervene after a viewer complained about an anti-Liverpool joke on Have I Got News For You.

Their complaint, against a gag in a November edition of the long-running BBC One show, was escalated to the highest level of the Corporation, but it was ruled that an appeal was unlikely to succeed and would not be cost-effective to pursue.

The complaint stems from a question in the missing words round in which host Charlie Brooker asked panelists to complete: ‘Bus disguised as brick wall… what?’

After revealing that the answer was ‘turns heads in Liverpool’, Brooker joked: ‘The finishing touch to the exhibit came when the wheels were nicked and it had to be put up on bricks.’

Ian Hislop mocked him for using the stereotype saying: ‘It’s the Liverpool joke.’

To which Brooker replied sarcastically: ‘Take that Liverpool – yeah!’

The complainant said the negative comments and ‘slanderous jokes’ should not have been included in Have I Got News For You as they ‘reinforce the strong and historical national prejudice against Liverpool’.

And she alleged that the BBC was turning a ‘blind eye’ jokes about Scousers that they would not allow against racial minorities.

Initially, the BBC’s audience services department said there was no malice in the gag and added: ‘Liverpool people may find jokes about stealing tiresome and such jokes may come across as lazy but that’s because they refer back to long-established stereotypes that comedy often relies on’.

They also pointed out that Hislop drew attention to the fact it was a ‘tired, well-worn joke’

At the next stage, the BBC’s head of editorial standards said the joke was ‘not to be taken seriously’  and would not perpetuate prejudice. It was also pointed out that the programme has mocked various national traits over its 27 years on air.

The viewer then escalated her complaint to the BBC Trust, which today declared that no further action would be taken.

Trustees also received complaints that the corporation’s news output, and local radio station name, should not refer to ‘outdated’ Merseyside, but instead use ‘Liverpool City Region’. 

The complaints, also rejected, further complained that an image of the Liver Building used online was ‘very gloomy and depressing’ and said editors should have used a ‘bright and optimistic picture’ – thus endorsing the ‘strong historical displayed by the BBC against Liverpool.’

Published: 23 Feb 2017