Mock The Week in trouble over Rebecca Adlington ‘joke’

BBC satirical show Mock The Week is in trouble for joking that Olympic swimming champion Rebecca Adlington resembled “someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon”.

In its first ruling since announcing a crackdown on cruel and humliating comedy, the BBC Trust said there was no justification for making such a remark about Miss Adlington’s appearance. It ruled that the comment was both “humiliating” and “offensive”.

The BBC proposed a ban on scenes of intimidation, humiliation or derogatory remarks earlier this month in response to last years “Sachsgate” scandal, in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand taunted Andrew Sachs, the actor, in prank phone calls.

However, industry veterans fear that the guidelines stray too far into political correctness and could kill off famous scenes from Fawlty Towers, in which Sachs played the waiter Manuel, and other television classics.

The remark which has now fallen foul of the trust was made by Frankie Boyle, a regular on BBC Two’s Mock The Week, and broadcast in August 2008, soon after Adlington won two gold medals in Beijing.

“The thing that nobody really said about Rebecca Adlington is that she looks pretty weird. She looks like someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon,” he said.

Boyle went on to compound the offence by making a second derogatory remark about Miss Adlington’s appearance, referring to her arrival back in Britain at the end of the Games. Boyle said: “When she arrived back on the flight she met her boyfriend. Did you see her boyfriend? He was really attractive. He was like a male model. So from that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty.”

Seventy-five viewers complained to the BBC but the corporation initially defended the programme, claiming that “making satirical observations about public figures will always come under the brief of the show”.

When one viewer persisted with his complaint, he received a letter from the programme’s producer which said: “The programme team’s treatment of Rebecca Adlington was no different to any other athlete or sporting star. I was aware that Frankie Boyle’s typically misanthropic comments were not in accord with a jubilant nation but reasoned that they were not outrageously offensive.” The producer did concede that “the ribbing might have gone a tad too far”, but no further action was taken.

The viewer appealed to the BBC Trust, which delivered its findings yesterday. Upholding the complaint, Richard Tait, chairman of the Trust’s Editorial Standards Committee, said: “The comments about Rebecca Adlington were humiliating, and this was exacerbated by the fact that she had not sought celebrity status or courted media attention. There was no clear editorial purpose for the inclusion of the joke.” The second remark was unnecessary “sexual innuendo”.

Rob Woodhouse, Miss Adlington’s agent, welcomed the Trust’s ruling and condemned the programme. He said: “I am surprised this sort of thing is allowed to be said in a public environment, to be honest.”

In a separate ruling yesterday, the Trust dismissed complaints about another episode of Mock The Week, in which Boyle made a sexual reference to the Queen. The Trust concluded that the joke was “in bad taste” but was broadcast long after the watershed and was “within audience expectations for the show”.

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