Goodness gracious me, how refreshing! Sanjeev defends It Ain’t Half Hot Mum
...and says he was fine with white actor voicing his lookalike on Thunderbirds
IT’S the classic sitcom that the BBC has reportedly deemed too racist to ever air again.
But It Ain’t Half Hot Mum has received support from an unlikely quarter: the liberal, British-Indian comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar.
The comedy, set in India during the closing months of the Second World War, attracted up to 15million viewers at its peak in the 1970s. But it is often considered too offensive for today’s more woke sensibilities – particularly because white actor Michael Bates darkened his skin to play Indian character Rangi Ram.
But Bhaskar, who found fame in the comedy series Goodness Gracious Me, says the comedy should not be banned from repeat channels or streaming platforms.
‘There’s been those discussions about programmes that have been removed,’ he said, adding that he understood that ‘in this day and age’ some classic shows are considered unacceptable.
But he explained: ‘I’ve always defended It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.
‘My argument was always that first of all, Michael Bates could speak Urdu fluently.
‘He served in the Army in India and he could speak the language. And secondly, within that programme, the character he was playing wasn’t the butt of the joke…
He [Rangi Ram] was the fixer, he was the one who sorted things out.’
Speaking to fellow comedian Rob Brydon on his podcast, 58-year-old Bhaskar said it was also important not to erase old programmes as they offer an insight into the past.
‘Context is everything,’ he said. ‘My argument has always been about trying to judge things from that time, to understand what the social climate was like with regards to entertainment. Society moves on and it evolves.
‘The problem for me with removing them completely is that they are part of the story, the social story of where we’ve got to now… I’m all for putting up disclaimers, putting up all those kinds of things, but I think erasing it kind of erases some of that journey.’
Bhaskar, who is married to his Goodness Gracious Me co-star Meera Syal, also made reference to the debate over whether actors always had to share an identity with the roles they played. ‘Part of the stock and trade of a certain type of acting is to take on characters’ characteristics and that means a walk and an attitude and a voice of someone you’re not,’ he said.
And he revealed that he gave permission for a white actor to voice an Asian character in the animated series Thunderbirds that was based on him.
He explained: ‘A few years ago they were celebrating the anniversary of Thunderbirds, and they had the audio adventures on record that they’d never put images to.
‘One of the characters in it was called Gallup Din, and he was an International Rescue agent based in the Himalayas. So they needed a puppet for it and they got in touch because they knew I was a Thunderbirds fan and said, “Would you mind if we modelled one on you?”
‘The weird thing was, because it was the original audio, it was the [white] person who was doing the voice of Parker [the chauffeur] who did the Indian accent for Gallup Din. And they did say to me, “This is the audio, if you have any objections?” I said, “No.” ’
It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, which starred Windsor Davies and ran from 1974 to 1981, has also been accused of homophobia. A decade ago it was reported the BBC ruled it would not be shown again because of ‘the undertone of racism’.
Several of the Corporation’s vintage comedies have recently been censored on the grounds of changing sensibilities.
A racist outburst was edited out of Fawlty Towers, and Little Britain has been dropped from the iPlayer service.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the BBC had also edited classic radio comedies to remove what it deemed to be racially insensitive and politically incorrect jokes.
‘Erasing these shows also erases Britain’s journey’