Uproar over TV Brexit show for children that even BBC’s own star damns as ‘anti-British’
Andrew Neil leads outrage against Horrible Histories ‘drivel’ that pours scorn on this country’s achievements
THE BBC has provoked outrage by screening an ‘ anti- British’ children’s programme on Brexit Day.
Hosted by Left-wing comedian Nish Kumar, Horrible Histories Brexit suggested Britain had historically failed to produce anything of note, relying instead on imports.
Amid a chorus of protest, even one of the BBC’s broadcasters launched a stinging attack on the show. Leading political commentator Andrew Neil last night called it ‘anti-British drivel of a high order’ and asked: ‘Was any of the licence fee used to produce something purely designed to demean us?’
Kumar begins by introducing a series of CBBC ‘comedy’ clips. In one sequence, Queen Victoria is labelled ‘foreign’ and portrayed as a dullard who is shocked to discover that sugar, tea and cotton do not come from England.
Her manservant performs a song suggesting that Victorians only had access to these goods because of slavery and imperial might. Yet slavery was abolished four years before Victoria came to the Throne.
He sings: ‘Sugar is Caribbean-imported. For sugar in your cup of tea, slavery’s been supported. I know it’s wrong, your Majesty, but slaves in Africa worked hard in fields of sugar cane to sweeten up your char.’
The Queen and her servant then sing: ‘British things, British things, I thought that they were many. British things, British things, afraid there’s hardly any.’ The servant then adds: ‘Your British things are from abroad and most are frankly stolen.’
The song describes Victoria as ‘foreign’ and concludes: ‘British things, British things, there are none we declare. All our favourite British things seem to come from elsewhere.’
Historian Andrew Roberts described the tenminute show – released on Friday on BBC iPlayer to coincide with the departure from the European Union – as ‘ a stream of bigoted hatred directed against this country’.
He added: ‘These sneering attitudes to all things British should not be forced down the throats of children by the BBC. It is an attempt to make us despise our ancestors in a purely ahistorical way.’
Kumar, who hosts the comedy satire show The Mash Report on BBC2, begins the show by talking sarcastically about Brexit.
In a mocking tone, he says: ‘Here we are on the verge of Brexit. The UK is leaving the European Union. You might not have heard much about it because things have been so quick and so smooth. I mean, if anything, it’s going too well.
‘ I thought as we stand on the verge of this historic moment we would look back at what Europe has done for us.’
The film also features comedy sketches about several European nations, including France, Germany and Italy.
Mr Roberts, the author of Churchill: Walking With Destiny, said: ‘No one has ever suggested that sugar, cotton and tea were grown domestically. The idea that there are hardly any British things ignores the Industrial Revolution, the English language which is spoken in the Caribbean and India, English common law which is practised in the Caribbean and India and the abolition of the slave trade four years before Queen Victoria came to the Throne.’
The row came as a BBC reporter faced criticism for describing the Brexit crowds celebrating in London on Friday night as ‘very white’.
Geet a Guru- Murt h y, whos e younger brother is Channel 4 presenter Krishnan, told one Brexit
‘A stream of bigoted hatred directed against this country’
supporter: ‘It’s a very white crowd mostly.’ Twitter users said GuruMurthy should be sacked for her comments, while many Asian and black Brexit supporters who had celebrated in Westminster posted selfies on Twitter. One wrote: ‘The
BBC are racist against white people.’ Another said: ‘Just a group of “white racists” celebrating Brexit last night... Oh wait, Brexit doesn’t make you white or racist. If only the BBC and Channel 4 knew this.’
Channel 4 news presenter Jon
Snow faced similar uproar last year when he said on air that he had ‘never seen so many white people’ at a pro-Brexit rally.
Of the Horrible Histories film, Mail on Sunday columnist Piers Morgan said on Twitter: ‘Why is the
BBC paying nasty pieces of work like Kumar to trash Britain like this? An outrageous and shameful abuse of public money.’
Former MP Douglas Carswell wrote: ‘The crassness of this BBC children’s clip is remarkable. The
slave trade was made illegal before Victoria became Queen. Her governments went to great lengths to stamp it out. Brits had access to tea and sugar due to free trade. Buying imports is not un-British.’
Several BBC critics last night claimed the sketch featuring Queen Victoria, which was previously broadcast in 2009, bordered on racist because it claimed that people, goods and traditions from elsewhere could never be British.
One viewer said: ‘ Anti- British propaganda like this has led people to stop paying their licence fee.’
James Cleverly, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, said: ‘Are Nish and the Horrible Histories Team saying that no matter for how long and how intimately things are part of mainstream life, they aren’t really British if they originated overseas? Sounds a lot like the argument made by the BNP about people like me. And Nish.’
Oscar winner Lord Fellowes, who wrote the screenplay to the film Young Victoria, said: ‘It’s pretty rough involving Queen Victoria in the slavery argument. Slavery had been ruled illegal in Britain in the 1770s and it was abolished in the colonies in 1833.’
Daisy Goodwin, the screenwriter for television drama Victoria, also raised concerns about her portrayal. She said: ‘He [Nish] is completely right to point out that the British Empire was based on the exploitation of other people... but I think it’s a bit unfair on Queen Victoria who was neither racist nor stupid.’
The BBC defended the show, saying: ‘The Horrible Histories video is light-hearted and not anti-British. We are a nation, like most others, that enjoy a patchwork of traditions and culture from other countries. Our children’s audience are able to take these things as intended.
‘Horrible Histories takes historical accuracy incredibly seriously. Many goods common in Britain during the Victorian era were harvested or produced by slaves in other countries – even though Britain abolished the slave trade before Victoria became Queen.’
The row comes as the BBC is at loggerheads with the Government over alleged bias in its Brexit coverage. In protest, Ministers are refusing to t ake part i n programmes, i ncluding Radio 4’s Today programme and Newsnight.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News coverage of the moment of departure at 11pm on Friday infuriated many viewers, who considered it negative and pre-occupied with the concerns of Remain supporters.
One viewer wrote: ‘ Anyone else think that the coverage of the Brexit Day celebrations was a bit like them covering the FA Cup final and then showing the losing captain, team and fans being interviewed in preference to the winning side?’
A BBC spokesman said: ‘We think our coverage gave a good overall picture of events.’