BritBox sparks ‘yellowface’ row after BBC and ITV streaming service runs Doctor Who episode with racist slurs and white actors wearing make-up to play Asian characters
- £5.99-a-month streaming service failed to put a content warning on the episode
- TV bosses had promised its shows would ‘comply’ with a 2019 audience
- BBC’s Death Us Do Part and ITV’s series Love Thy Neighbour were axed
BritBox has been accused of ‘racism’ after it put up an episode of Doctor Who where Chinese people are referred to as ‘inscrutable chinks’ and ‘yellowfaced’.
The £5.99-a-month streaming service run by the BBC and ITV failed to put a content warning on the 1977 six-part series where white actors are also shown wearing make-up and putting on accents as they play Asian characters.
TV bosses have already rejected a host of British programmes from the platform after claiming they do not ‘comply’ with the viewing standards of a 2019 audience.
Among shows to fall under the axe were the BBC’s 1965 Death Us Do Part, which contains a bigoted character, and ITV’s 1970s series Love Thy Neighbour, about a West Indian couple living next door to a white English couple.
Britbox has added a content warning to the episode since it was alerted to the issue, and said its compliance team are still working to ‘review’ all programmes.
The 1977 episode of Doctor Who shows a white actor wearing make-up and putting on an accent. TV bosses had promised BritBox would comply with 2019 viewing standards
The episode shows Tom Brake as Doctor Who battling a Chinese stage magician
Spokeswoman for the British East Asians in Theatre & on Screen and a screenwriter for Hollyoaks and Doctors who grew up in Hong Kong, Emma Ko, told The Times the episode is ‘really hard to watch because yellowface is so unacceptable now’.
‘When you are somebody who was called a “Chink” in your childhood, as I have been, it is so hard to hear that word and not feel immediately a trigger reaction of how wrong it is.’
The episode, titled The Talons of Weng-Chiang, shows Tom Baker playing the Doctor as he battles a Chinese stage magician villain called Li H’sen Chang, played by white British actor John Bennett.
When the platform, which aims to show viewers the best of British television, was launched it pledged to ‘re-comply everything that goes on to BritBox with modern TV viewing standards’.
It also trumpeted a setting that would allow viewers to set bespoke warnings for particular programmes.
An ITV spokesman said at the launch: ‘We’ve carefully selected a wide range of the very best in British programming which will appeal to viewers in 2019.’
Other episodes have had warnings placed on them including one from Fawlty Towers where John Cleese’s character impersonates Nazi marching
Several series were axed from the platform before its launch. ITV’s 1970s Love Thy Neighbour series, about a West Indian couple living next to a white couple, was not put on BritBox
Programmes to make it onto the service include Fawlty Towers, which contains scenes where John Cleese’s character Basil Fawlty impersonates Nazi marching and has trouble communicating with a Spanish character called Manuel.
BritBox bosses have added a warning to the series saying it contains ‘some offensive language of the time and upsetting scenes’.
Only Fools and Horses was also allowed onto the platform, but displays a content warning for viewers.
BritBox has failed to reveal its viewing figures since its launch last year, claiming it is still too early to release them.
However, research has found that most users appear not to continue their membership following a one month free trial.
Only 1.5 per cent of households that signed up kept their membership, according to a survey by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates, which is equivalent to 380,000 households in the UK.
Tom Brake pictured as the fourth doctor with his new companion Leela, or Louise Jameson
Netflix – which launched its service in 2010 – has over 9.1million viewers in the UK alone and 148 million worldwide.
Meanwhile Amazon Prime has managed to rake in 6.4million viewers for programmes including The Grand Tour and The Man In The High Castle.
BritBox commissioned its first programme, Spitting Image, last week. The popular satirical comedy ridiculing politicians and leaders in the 1980s and 1990s has been absent from British TV sets for more than 20 years.