Netflix Axes The League Of Gentlemen And Other Comedy Shows Featuring Blackface

The move follows the streaming giant's decision to pull Little Britain from its service.
LOADINGERROR LOADING

Netflix has pulled The League Of Gentlemen and a number of other shows featuring blackface.

Last week, the streaming service took down Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, with the BBC iPlayer and BritBox following suit in recent days.

It’s now been revealed that Netflix has removed a number of other shows from its catalogue, both here in the UK and worldwide.

The League Of Gentlemen – in which Reece Shearsmith uses blackface make-up to play the character Papa Lazarou – has been pulled in the UK, a week before its intended expiry date of June 19.

The League Of Gentlemen
The League Of Gentlemen
BBC

Canadian series The Drunk And On Drugs Happy Funtime Hour, which features two characters in blackface as well as an Asian character portrayed by a white actor, has also been pulled.

'The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour' has been removed from Netflix UK after about 22 months. #TooLate

— NewOnNetflixUK -fan- (@NewOnNetflixUK) June 10, 2020

In Australia and New Zealand, comedian Chris Lilley’s shows including Summer Heights High, Jonah From Tonga and Angry Boys have also been removed from the platform.

All of these shows see Chris in dark make-up playing characters including Tongan schoolboy Jonah, while in We Can Be Heroes – another show which has been pulled by Netflix in Australia and New Zealand – he plays an Asian student.

His most recent comedy series, the Netflix original Lunatics, is still available to stream, despite controversy over one of the characters, Jana Melhoopen-Jonks.

Lilley has been accused of using blackface for the role – but a producer for the show has insisted that the character is “not a woman of colour”.

Netflix provided no further comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.

Australian comedian Chris Lilley
Australian comedian Chris Lilley
Don Arnold via Getty Images

While the BBC followed suit when it came to the removal of Little Britain, The League Of Gentlemen and many of Chris Lilley’s shows are still available to watch on BBC iPlayer at the time of writing.

A BBC rep told Metro: “The change only affects Little Britain. There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer, which we regularly review.”

Close

What's Hot