Cancelled, BBC comedy that taunted the Tories
THE Mash Report has been axed by the BBC after criticism of its Left-wing bias.
Hosted by Nish Kumar and including comedians such as Rachel Parris, the BBC2 satirical comedy programme has consistently attacked the Tory government and Brexit.
It comes after the BBC’s new director general, Tim Davie, made impartiality one of his major priorities.
When he took the job in September, he said that the corporation needed to seek a ‘wider spectrum of views’ and be ‘more representative of the UK as a whole’.
Mr Davie is also understood to be keen for impartiality to be considered by the whole BBC, not just news. He has said there should not be an ‘assumed point of view’ in its comedy output. Yesterday, amid reports linking The Mash Report’s demise to bias, host Kumar wrote on Twitter: ‘A lot of people asking me for a comment and here it is.’ Underneath was a picture showing him alongside a screen which accused Boris Johnson of being ‘a liar and a racist’.
Kumar has previously admitted he was ‘guilty’ of the claim that he had ‘not got over Brexit’.
In 2018, broadcaster Andrew Neil singled out The Mash Report when complaining that the corporation’s comedy output was too Left-wing. He called it ‘self-satisfied, self-adulatory, unchallenged Left-wing propaganda’.
Neil said: ‘When it comes to so-called comedy the BBC has long given up on balance, on radio and TV.
‘Nobody seems to care. And I don’t want Right-wing comedy, whatever that is. I’d just like comedy.’
Yesterday sources at the BBC did not admit the show had been axed for its bias, with one claiming: ‘I think it had just had its time.’
But they admitted some people at the corporation felt it had ‘at times sailed too close to the wind’. They added that the broadcaster needed to look at the totality of its output when thinking about impartiality, as well as just news. The BBC2 programme, a satirical take on the week’s news, first aired in 2017.
Yesterday, the BBC said in a statement: ‘We are very proud of The Mash Report but, in order to make room for new comedy shows, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions and it won’t be returning.
‘We would like to thank all those involved in four brilliant series and hope to work with Nish Kumar, Rachel Parris and the team in the future.’