BBC’s policy on comedy is a bad joke

An editor of BBC comedy has revealed the lengths to which writers must go to get a simple joke on air. As executives fear causing a scandal with an off-key quip, Chris Sussman, an executive editor for comedy, said some have to go through “quite a lot of layers” to see the light of day. Some had to be checked personally by the director of TV and even Tony Hall, the director-general.

The levels of approval are in stark contrast to years gone by at the BBC, when comedians were given relatively free creative rein to measure the success of their own sketches.

Speaking at a BAFTA event about free speech and television, Sussman said: “At the BBC, it’s been a difficult few years and I think that is reflected internally in terms of the processes and procedures we go through when we’re making programs.

“Certainly since I’ve been there it’s been, I would say, a tougher environment than it has been for a while. To get a certain joke on air, to get a joke approved, we have to go through quite a lot of layers.

“We have editorial policy advisers. We have legal advisers. We have to run jokes past the channel,” he said.

“In certain circumstances they’d have to run jokes past the director of television. I’ve been involved in a program where it’s gone all the way up to the director-general.”

Sussman, who appeared in a panel discussion for the BAFTA Guru series of industry events, said he had joined the BBC after a scandal involving Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand that saw a flood of complaints about their verbal abuse of the veteran actor Andrew Sachs involving Sachs’s granddaughter, with whom Brand had had an affair.

When asked whether editors or comedians were summoned to tell the joke in question, he added: “Sometimes we’ll run something past at script stage, if we’re unsure. Most of the time it’s about, ‘here’s the show, have a look at it’.” He clarified that all jokes were now considered on the basis of whether they were funny enough to justify any potential offence caused.