Ming the Offensive! Censors target Flash Gordon

IT IS the Queen’s favourite film which she watches every Christmas, according to one of its much-loved actors.

But Flash Gordon has fallen foul of censors who believe viewers may find baddie Ming the Merciless offensive.

They have added a ‘discrimination’ warning to the 1980 sci-fi movie as the villain is ‘coded’ as Asian but played by white actor Max von Sydow. The British Board of Film

Classification also said scenes of violence led it to raise the rating to a 12A.

It was an A rating on its original release, the equivalent of today’s PG.

Matt Tindall of the BBFC said attitudes towards ‘discriminatory racial stereotypes’ had moved on since the film first aired.

He said Ming (pictured) was ‘coded as an east Asian character due to his hair and make-up’ even though he was played by a white actor. He said this was something that ‘viewers may find dubious if not outright offensive’.

The movie, starring Sam Jones as Flash and Brian Blessed as Prince Vultan, was reclassified in July ahead of its cinema re-release to mark its 40th anniversary.

Violent scenes that concerned censors included a woman’s back being whipped bloody. The film also contains moderate bad language and sex references, including a woman in a harem being offered a ‘potion’ to make the experience ‘more agreeable’. Its home entertainment rating remains PG as it has not been resubmitted to the BBFC. Blessed claims the Queen watches the movie every Christmas with her grandchildren.