From The Times February 4, 2009
'Carol Thatcher has been dropped from The One Show by the BBC after referring to a tennis player as a “golliwog” in an off-air conversation.
The journalist daughter of Baroness Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, is understood to have refused a request from the BBC to offer an unconditional apology for her comment.
She used the word during a conversation about the Australian Open tennis tournament in the green room after the programme last Thursday while having a drink with Adrian Chiles, the presenter. It is understood to have been a reference to a player in the men’s competition.
BBC sources said that Chiles and other programme staff took “great offence” at her language. Thatcher adamantly denies that she was being racist and maintains that the remark was off the cuff and a joke. Neither the BBC nor Thatcher’s representatives have identified the male tennis player who was under discussion.
BBC insiders said that Thatcher’s job as a roving reporter for The One Show, on BBC One, required her to report on a wide range of issues and to meet a diverse range of people throughout the country, many of whom would not agree that her comment was acceptable even as a joke.
A source said: “The One Show had hoped that Carol would issue an unconditional apology to those whom she had offended, but she declined to do so.” Because of that it was “no longer tenable” for her to continue working on the programme.
A BBC spokesman said: “We will no longer be working with Carol That- cher on The One Show.” It is understood that she will not be invited back until she acknowledges publicly that using the word “golliwog” is not acceptable, even when apparently in jest.
Thatcher said yesterday that she was surprised by the controversy.
Speaking through an intercom at her home in South London, she said: “I am baffled by all this. I don’t want to talk about anything. I am not coming outside and I won’t be saying anything.”
The corporation said that it considered “any language of a racist nature wholly unacceptable”.
Senior executives are said to be unimpressed by the explanation offered by her spokesman to The Times that the word was used in an off-the-cuff remark intended as a joke.
Thatcher, 55, has been a regular contributor to the evening magazine programme for three years after relaunching her media career by winning the ITV reality show I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!
Last year she published a memoir that was widely criticised for revealing that her mother had been suffering from dementia for several years.
Her spokesman told The Times: “Carol never intended any racist comment. She made a light aside about this tennis player and his similarity to the golliwog on the jampot when she was growing up. There’s no way, obviously, that she would condone any racist comment — we would refute that entirely. It would not be in her nature to do anything like that.”
The spokesman added that Thatcher had made the reference as “a funny aside”.
Thatcher had apologised to the programme’s producer for any offence but was said to be mortified that the content of an off-air conversation had been disclosed by a BBC employee.
Jo Brand, another regular contributor to The One Show, was understood also to be in the green room when the incident occurred. Her agent said that she had no comment to make.
Brand is the subject of a complaint to police from the British National Party after she joked on another BBC programme about sending excrement to people on a leaked list of members of the far-right group. Scotland Yard said that it was in contact with the Crown Prosecution Service to discuss whether that complaint merited an investigation.
A police spokesman said that no complaint had been received about Thatcher’s “golliwog” comment.''
Note as ever the vicarious nature of the complaint. If she had called someone a gollywog he would be offended. I do not even call people wogs, well not to their face. But I demand the right to free speech, especially in private conversation I still own a Golden Shred gollywog badge but no longer wear it. Perhaps I should offer it for sale on the BNP website.
Never mind Carol. have a cry on your mother's shoulder. She knows all about being badly treated by men not fit to tie he boot laces.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
When I grew up (in the 1970's, a "golliwog" was a toy (doll), and a popular one at that! It was also referred to in several children's books at that time. There was no racial intent whatsoever!!! Is this what the world of 2009 has come to? Good for her refusing to apologise for something so stupid!
I grew up in the 1950 with gollywogs. We collected them IIRC with coupons from Robertsons jam and marmalade.When did the wog get dropped? Now we are to drop the golly. I also worked in Nigeria with a man called Sambo. Yes he was little and black too.
Post a Comment