BBC says sorry for After You've Gone swearing

This story is probably a bit dull but we thought we'd report it anyway as it explains what happened to the Sunday afternoon repeats of After You've Gone earlier in the year...

The latest bulletin from media watchdog Ofcom has been published. Amongst the stern rulings relating to the current participation TV scandals is a section on BBC1 sitcom After You've Gone.

The report is centred around the first episode of the family sitcom: Stuck in the Middle with You. Broadcast on the 12th January before the watershed, the episode generated three complains - apparently the viewers were offended by the use of language such as 'shag', 'crap', 'bollocks', 'Christ' and 'tits' so early in the evening.

This in itself wouldn't normally be enough to generate a response from Ofcom however the BBC went on to repeat the episode on Sunday in an even earlier time slot when children were more likely to be watching. This repeat generated a further thirty three complaints and thus a demand from Ofcom for the Corporation to explain why it had breached Rule 1.16: "Offensive language must not be broadcast before the watershed, or when children are particularly likely to be listening, unless it is justified by the context."

The BBC's response was that it acknowledged that it had broadcast a programme containing language which had the potential to offend but the Corporation did not believe that it was inappropriate to schedule it in the 30 minutes immediately before the watershed. The BBC also said that the language was justified by the dramatic context, with much of the humour coming from clash of class attitudes between handyman Jimmy and his former mother-in-law, Diana, who thinks herself socially superior. They pointed out Jimmy's character is clearly used to the kind of predominantly male environments where coarse language is more acceptable, while Diana only uses terms such as 'tits' that transgress the stereotype she represents for comic effect, without being unduly offensive.

The BBC admitted though that, while it believed such language was acceptable at 20:30, it was not suitable for broadcast on a Sunday afternoon when many children would be watching. The broadcaster recognised from the volume of complaints that it had misjudged this transmission and apologised for any offence caused. This had been quickly recognised - a few days after the broadcast an apology was posted on the BBC's complaints website and an immediate commitment made to alter the series so that it was more appropriate for the timeslot. Apparently the remaining episodes were edited to remove much of the coarse language.

It seems this apology and swift action was enough to appease Ofcom as in their report the regulator has now marked the issue as resolved - in otherwords BBC1 have escaped a heavy fine.