For me the whole things smacks of double standards. Air some creaky old show from the 1970’s with a warning yet give the proud and openly offensive Frankie Boyle an entire series to himself on a primetime slot. Go figure.
Put another way perhaps (?), is that the very same people who want to exercise their rights to free speech and freedom of whatever, then weaponise the protections afforded to them to determine what is then deemed acceptable to the majority in society. It’s bigotry…but that word cannot be used.
I think its all bollocks…frankly.
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I always thought Stephen Fry was a bit of a twit, but my estimation of him has shot up after reading that.
(And he was wonderfully dense in the most moving thing that I’ve seen on TV in years - the extraordinary final episode of ‘Blackadder’.)
PS I discovered just now that this site won’t allow me to call Stephen Fry a word which is similar to ‘twit’, but which has an ‘a’ rather than an ‘i’. Deary me!
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No. That was Jack Smethurst.
DG…
Rudolph Walker is in East Enders now and has been for years.
Ah yes, happy to stand corrected DG!
Devialet
… was a few years ago a golden word to get Naim folks upset.
I wonder if I could have used the word ‘berk’ to express my original opinion of Mr Fry. Few people seem to know that that’s rhyming slang for a much stronger word, and I had to pull up ny late father for his frequent use of the term.
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Is it the content or presentation of Mr. Boyle’s homilys to which you object.
It does on That’s TV UK you get the warnings at the start and after the add break.
Most of his rantings get bleeped out making the whole thing rather pointless.
I’m a Grumpy old git. 
“Is it the content or presentation of Mr. Boyle’s homilys to which you object”.
Neither Nick1940
This is a less recent phenomenon than many might realise.
I loved the Thomas the Tank Engine books as a small child, and was given my stepfather’s copies (1950s vintage) to add to my collection (early 80s). Inevitably, there were some duplicates and, even at that age, I noticed that the phrase ‘as black as soot’ in one of my copies was one word different in the earlier edition.
I would happily go to my grave never hearing or reading that word again, so I’m fine with it being ‘censored’ to appease ‘snowflakes’ like me - including by this forum’s autocorrect. There are other words that fall into the same category but, inevitably, we all draw the line in different places.
Mark
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A friend of our’s was clearing some old stuff out of her children’s toy cupboard (they are grown up with responsible jobs and children of their own now) and found a quite high quality watercolour paint set.
The mostly unused tablets of paint were nicely labelled with the name of the colour. Cobalt blue. Royal purple. N***er brown…
I cannot imagine what is wrong with ‘as black as soot’, nor who could object to it.
Is ‘as white as snow’ equally unacceptable?
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I think that’s what it has been changed to. 
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Over the years I think ‘until death us do part’ has become seriously misunderstood in some quarters. The aim is surely to hold Alf Garnett to ridicule and disdain not to be offensive by the nature of the content.
How do you hold racism and bigotry to account if you hide it or be ‘offended’ by it. The best antidote is ridicule and mockery. One of the finest examples of this is the ‘nazi’ short film of the Lambeth Walk which apparently had Goebbels chewing the carpet with rage.
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You are correct. I am not offended by the phrase ‘as black as soot’.
As per my post half an hour ago, I really must be missing something. Can someone please explain why as black as soot is offensive in any way.
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You are missing something. The phrase has been updated to ‘as black as soot’ by just one word.
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