Loudmouth docker’s son with a huge talent ... for getting the boot
UNTIL Wednesday evening, Danny Baker enjoyed a reputation as a comedy writer, TV personality, disc jockey, raconteur and cancer survivor. For almost 40 years, he’s graced the airwaves with his unique brand of irreverent, if often highly opinionated, take on everyday life, current affairs, gossip, entertainment and sport.
But yesterday, the 61-year-old docker’s son’s intended comedic take on ‘class and privilege’ – one of his long-standing obsessions – left him forced to appear on his doorstep in south- east London to defend himself against claims that behind his cheeky persona there beats the heart of a virulent racist.
In Baker’s view, that was a grotesque overreaction to an honest mistake. He called the BBC’s response a ‘masterclass of pompous faux-gravity’ in which Radio 5 Live ‘literally threw me under the bus’.
His conversation with station controller Jonathan Wall ended with the words: ‘F*** you, and f*** off!’
Whoever you believe is in the right, this unseemly story raises important questions not just about race and class, but also our entire social media culture.
After all, barely a day seems to pass without a public figure inadvertently igniting a socalled Twitter storm, and where a single careless post, uploaded in a couple of seconds, can upend a person’s entire existence. As to the rights and wrongs of such comments – if there is any form of moral code in today’s modern-day Wild West which is the internet – they tend to hinge on the issue of intent.
Baker might have form as a tricky employee (he’s now been sacked by the BBC three times) but he’s never previously been accused of xenophobia, and even the most vehement critic of his tweet would concede that it was likely to be the product of stupidity: inadvertently, rather than deliberately, racist.
Indeed, it should be noted that he’s been comparing public figures to apes for years.
A long- standing feature of his show has been a segment called ‘Monkeys dressed as famous people plus fairground music’. A few of the celebrities were from ethnic minorities. It never sparked a single complaint.
The problem with his Baby Sussex tweet, however, was one of context. For hundreds of years, the shocking concept that black people are less evolved than whites has been used to justify slavery, bigotry and the very worst excesses of colonialism.
Sadly, it remains a common factor behind the lynchings and civil rights abuses in America in the last century. Its ugly head was raised often during the Obama presidency.
In one disgraceful high-profile incident, the white mayor of a town in West Virginia called First Lady Michelle Obama an ‘ape in heels’.
Danny Baker’s tweet, about a child whose ancestors were slaves, carried similar overtones. Although he says this was never
intended, his critics argue that no one could have failed to notice that the image was highly offensive. Claiming ignorance is no defence.
indeed, they say, if any person was asked in the street to identify three characteristics of Meghan, her racial background would be one.
Baker’s tweeted photo was described as ‘old-school prejudice and racism at its peak’ by Charlene White, the first black woman to present iTV’s news At Ten.
She added: ‘And for a trusted broadcaster working at a public service broadcaster to feed that prejudice? it’s unacceptable.’
London Hughes, a prominent black comedian, claimed Baker, with whom she has worked, ‘knew full well’ what he was suggesting as all comedians see jokes from every angle.
‘He knew it was racist, thought it was funny and posted it anyway,’ she said.
There was also criticism of Baker’s initial apology saying that any racial connotations had ‘never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased’.
As critics pointed out, his apology suggested that he believed people who had been offended by the image were mentally ill. The celebrated writer Afua Hirsch remarked: ‘not only does Danny Baker post an image comparing a baby with African heritage to an ape, but he has the audacity to say the problem is that those of us who point out how racist it is have “diseased minds”. Classic example of blaming those of us who call out racism for its existence.’ Of course, Baker has many defenders. TV writer Daniel Maier said anyone who knew Baker or his work would never ‘reasonably infer racist intent’. Perhaps, supporters wondered, Baker should merely have been suspended rather than sacked. indeed, he’s long argued that class prejudice runs through the world of entertainment. The son of a Bermondsey docker and petty thief, he grew up in a flat overlooking the infamous ‘torture barn’ where the Richardson crime gang used pliers and electrodes on their enemies. After leaving school at 14 to work in a record shop, he started a punk fanzine called Sniffin’ Glue and then worked for the new Musical Express. in the early 1980s, he was recruited to TV by Janet Street Porter, working on youth shows for London Weekend Television, writing for a host of comedy shows and fronting the occasional quiz show such as Pets Win Prizes. He became one of the hottest properties in broadcasting – a key player behind Chris Evans’s 1990s show TFi Friday and developer of the football phone-in format on radio. He was photographed drinking with Evans and footballer Paul Gascoigne.
YETdespite the success, his relationship with the BBC was often tetchy. in 1997, Baker was sacked from his 5 Live show for encouraging listeners to abuse a referee who had given a hotly contested penalty in an FA Cup tie.
‘if you didn’t know any better, you would say the fellow was corrupt,’ he declared. ‘Football has a maggot and that maggot is referees. Most of them need a good slap round the face.’
Baker, a Millwall fan, accused his BBC bosses of failing to understand the frustrations of working-class fans.
in 2012, he delivered a vitriolic twohour rant against executives at BBC Radio London after learning that they intended to cancel his programme. He called his bosses ‘ weasels’, saying: ‘i hope their abacus comes undone and they choke on the beads.’
At the time, he was undergoing treatment for mouth and throat cancer, which led to portions of his throat and tonsils being removed.
it wasn’t until 2016 that he was declared cancer-free.
undaunted, he made headlines again by wishing cancer on ‘greasy, vampiric’ officials at Lewisham Council for failing to support Millwall FC in a planning row.
Yesterday’s demise won’t silence him. He produces a football podcast with Gary Lineker – who, despite his proud status as one of Twitter’s most right- on celebrities – was conspicuously silent yesterday.
if all else fails, Baker can release another comedy DVD. His most successful, a lucrative series depicting footballing bloopers, is called Danny Baker’s Own Goals And Gaffs [sic].
Yesterday, he unwittingly got himself another collector’s item.