The banned Fawlty Towers which sparked John Cleese's bitter feud with BBC

In June 2020, one of Britain's most beloved sitcoms found itself at the centre of a fierce row over censorship. An episode of Fawlty Towers titled The Germans - first broadcast in 1975 - was suddenly pulled from the BBC-owned streaming service UKTV, after concerns over racial slurs used by the character Major Gowen.

The storyline is one of the show's most famous, remembered for Basil Fawlty's frantic line "don't mention the war". But the language used elsewhere in the episode prompted executives to temporarily remove it. UKTV confirmed it would be reinstated only once it carried new warnings and "contextual guidance".

For John Cleese, co-creator and star of Fawlty Towers, the move was nothing short of outrageous. Writing online, he blasted the decision as "stupid" and branded BBC management "cowardly and gutless". He argued the point of the script had always been satire: Basil Fawlty was a figure of ridicule, not someone the audience was meant to admire.

Cleese pointed out that British comedy had long used offensive characters as a way of exposing prejudice. He cited Alf Garnett, the bigoted patriarch of Till Death Us Do Part, whose reactionary views were made laughable by their sheer absurdity. "We laughed at Alf's views, and in laughing, we discredited them," Cleese explained. "That's how satire works."

The 2020 removal came amid a wave of reappraisals of classic television during the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd's death.

HBO Max withdrew Gone With the Wind for its racial depictions, while Little Britain, Come Fly With Me, and The League of Gentlemen were pulled from streaming platforms in the UK.

ITV presenters Ant and Dec also apologised for sketches in which they impersonated people of colour.

Still, Cleese's anger was directed squarely at the BBC. "It used to have a sprinkling of people who had actually made programmes," he wrote, accusing today's management of caring more about protecting their jobs than defending creative freedom. "That's why they're so cowardly and contemptible."

Interestingly, the same episode had already been altered years earlier. In 2013, the BBC confirmed that Cleese's management had agreed to remove certain lines for a pre-watershed broadcast on BBC Two. At the time, the Corporation said public attitudes had shifted and "minor changes" allowed the show to air in a family slot.

Despite Cleese's fury, The Germans quickly returned to UKTV's platform, this time accompanied by a disclaimer. It also remained available on BritBox and Netflix, both of which carried warnings about outdated language and discriminatory content.

The controversy reignited a long-running debate about how television should handle material from a very different cultural era. For some, warnings and context allow classics to be enjoyed while acknowledging offensive elements. For others, like Cleese, any attempt to restrict access amounts to misunderstanding satire's entire purpose.