 Is Basil Brush racist?
I had to check this was'nt printed on april the 1st,but look at the company he keeps just recently,who next Roy Chubby Brown?
Basil Brush is under investigation by the hate crimes unit of Northamptonshire constabulary. A viewer complained when the fictional fox made unfavourable remarks about a Gypsy character on his BBC kids' sitcom, The Basil Brush Show, and representatives of several groups from the Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities have since voiced their disapproval.
The offending episode was made six years ago, but was repeated on the CBBC channel last month and is available on DVD. In it, Basil meets a Gypsy fortune-teller who puts a curse on his friend, Mr Stephen. He also cracks a joke about another travelling mystic having stolen his wallet. Boom boom.
Basil was created by Peter Firmin (of Bagpuss and Clangers fame) in 1968 as a vulpine Terry-Thomas. Clad in tweed cape and cravat, he sneered at modernity and made fun of everyone who wasn't him. And, like all puppets, he got away with things a human never could. Remove the Emu from Rod Hull's arm then replay that clip of him attacking Michael Parkinson and it immediately becomes a matter for the police.
Back in the day, Basil would regularly call his Irish companion, Mr Billy, "shamrock" and "Irish coffee" but these days, as a de-clawed sitcom character, he is guilty of little more than recycling old gags. The Gypsy plotline seems to be an ill-judged one-off. Out of his 1970s context of Alf Garnetts and Bernard Mannings, Basil seems anachronistic, sharing a flat with two children and their boyband-esque uncle. In a society striving for integration, he is one stuffed animal if he thinks he can get away with his old schtick now. Following the letter of the law, the police are probably right to investigate the furry old scamp for stereotyping a recognised ethnic group. But let's hope they stop short of actually bringing him in for questioning.
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