Comedian Marc Wootton sparked 350 complaints after an appearance on Friday
Night With Jonathan Ross.
Wootton, playing his spoof psychic Shirley Ghostman, made jokes about Jews
and cancer, forcing the BBC to issue the following: "We are sorry that many
viewers felt remarks made by Shirley Ghostman were unacceptable."
The BBC also said: "In certain case the material may cause offence because of
its extremes. Most viewers are aware of the style and nature of Friday Night
With Jonathan Ross, but we realise the comments were clearly more extreme to
some viewers for whom the spoof nature of this character was perhaps unclear. It
was certainly not our intention to cause such offense."
In related news, the BBC apologised for jokes made on Have
I Got News For You about the new Pope and MG Rover.
Cheeringly, the BBC said that remarks about the Pope were acceptable because
of "the enormous amount of positive coverage given to the Pope in BBC programmes
recently. But we recognise that some in our audience may not share this
view."
