The BBC has edited and removed sketches from Horrible Histories after the programme failed to meet guidelines for children's shows. The broadcaster has also taken down an entire episode featuring slavery, Victorian child workers and chimney sweeps.
Edits and removals
Horrible Histories, based on the bestselling book series by Terry Deary, aired on CBBC from 2009 to 2014 across 11 series. At least seven sketches or scenes have been removed, including one showing Madame Tussaud making wax masks from severed heads, according to The Times.
Another sketch no longer available on BBC iPlayer depicted white actors using darker makeup to portray ancient Egyptians or Incas. Actor Mathew Baynton, who played characters such as William Shakespeare and Guy Fawkes on the show, previously said it could be argued the show did "blackface" in its depiction of Egyptians.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2022, Baynton said: "We didn't do blackface, for example, but you could argue that we did. Because I played Egyptians, you know, for example, where you'd get a spray tan, essentially, and stand in your pants."
Content of removed sketches
The removed episode is said to have featured a sketch teaching children about slavery in ancient Rome by depicting a Roman galley as an airline flight, with enslaved rowers chained to their oars and told they will not be allowed to escape if the ship sinks. Another sketch showed how children in the Victorian era were sent into dangerous and narrow chimneys, with one young boy being told: "Try not to die."
A BBC spokesperson said: "The edits to Horrible Histories were made seven years ago, in consultation with the programme makers, to ensure the series meets our editorial guidelines for children's programmes."
Similar action on other shows
The news follows the BBC removing several sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look when the show aired on iPlayer, having decided that some of the material "no longer works today". The sketch comedy show, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, originally ran for four seasons between 2006 and 2010 and won a BAFTA in 2007.
To celebrate the show's 20th anniversary, the broadcaster added all four seasons to iPlayer, but with 11 sketches edited out amid fears of racism and ethnic stereotyping. "That Mitchell and Webb Look has been made available on BBC iPlayer," the broadcaster said in a statement. "This is a 20-year-old sketch show; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones that still work today and not the ones that don't."
Material removed from the programme included scenes featuring war re-enactors in blackface, a joke about Jimmy Savile, and an indigenous tribe living in a garden centre. One now-deleted sketch shows Mitchell playing a woman in a burka in a scene that sends up reality TV programming, before cutting to the pair discussing whether the sketch is offensive.
The Mirror has approached Horrible Histories author Terry Deary for comment.
