BBC bosses face new questions about why they promised to rebook a black comedienne who controversially ‘joked’ about killing white people.
Sophie Duker, 30, claimed that she was booked by producers of Frankie Boyle’s irreverent BBC2 panel show New World Order for an episode about the Black Lives Matter movement ‘last minute’ so the panel was not ‘all-white’.
The Left-wing female comic allegedly then refused to appear on future episodes of the programme unless the BBC hired other black panelists.
In an interview for the RHLSTP comedy podcast, Ms Duker revealed that the Corporation privately admitted that it ‘understood’ her concerns and vowed to make it an ‘easy yes’ to bring her back by meeting the ‘terms’ she outlined.
Critics now accuse the the BBC, whose new Director-General has vowed to tackle the problem of ‘Left-wing bias’ in its comedy output, of pandering to Ms Duker’s requirements despite a fierce public backlash after her appearance.
The comedienne, who has also appeared on Eight Out of Ten Cats, made controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ where she called ‘whiteness’ a ‘capitalist structure’ and joked about ‘killing whitey’.
Controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle’s panel show New World Order
Speaking with Richard Herring for the podcast yesterday, Ms Duker said: ‘I was asked to do the news quiz at very short notice after having already done an episode in the series, and I sort of immediately knew it would be to speak about Black Lives Matter.
‘They told me shortly after that I was replacing another comic, who was a white man, and it would have been an all-white panel, and that’s why I’d been booked.
‘I said I wouldn’t go back on the short again unless there was another black person on the show. There’s been no other person of colour involved editorially at all.
‘I was emailed (by the BBC) afterwards and they said that they basically understood why I did it… They would really like to have me back and to make it like an easy yes on the terms I outlined. I thought it was really gracious and classy’.
MailOnline has approached the BBC for comment.
Yesterday the BBC came under fire for airing ‘racist’ remarks by the ‘Marxist’ comic in an episode about the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a segment where the panelists discuss if the movement ‘glosses over the complexities of a world where we all need to come together and kill whitey’, Boyle played a clip of black author James Baldwin talking about ‘black power’ in an interview on the Dick Cavett Show in the 1970s.
Controversial statements about racism and ‘white power’ were made by comic Sophie Duker in an episode of the new series of Frankie Boyle’s panel show New World Order
Throughout her monologue, Duker’s co-panelists – Frankie Boyle, Sara Pascoe and Jamali Maddix – can be seen nodding and heard humming in agreement with the comedian
The segment fueled anger from a growing chorus of licence-fee payers who question why the BBC is ‘broadcasting ‘comedy’ where they ‘joke’ about killing an entire race of people’
Responding to the clip, Duker said ‘white power is Trump Tower’ – a nod to Left-wing allegations that the US President is a racist.
She continued: ‘But when we say we want to kill whitey, we don’t really mean we want to kill whitey’. Ms Duker then quips to the panelists ‘we do’ to roars of laughter.
Ms Duker added: ‘But when people react to people saying white privilege – whiteness is a capitalist structure, it benefits itself. It hurts white people, it hurts non-black people, it hurts black people.
‘But still this kind of fear of a black alternative, and it’s these sort of rhetorics battling against each other, these extreme capitalist rhetorics of supremacy.’
The segment fueled anger from a growing chorus of disgruntled licence-fee payers who question why the BBC is ‘broadcasting comedy’ where they ‘joke’ about killing an entire race of people’. Actor Laurence Fox thundered: ‘The BBC must have a no tolerance policy on ALL forms of racism.’
A BBC spokesman rubbished criticism of its decision to air the ‘Marxist’ comic, telling MailOnline: ‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order was shown after 10pm and its content is within audience expectations for a post-watershed, topical, satirical programme from a comedian whose style and tone are well-established’.
TalkRadio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer said: ‘This is horrible. It’s not just unfunny, it’s incoherent nonsensical Marxist gobbledegook. The white contributors nodding along supportively as this woman jokes about killing people who look like them is just plain sick.’
Brexiteer Darren Grimes claimed: ‘This is from BBC comedy’s New World Order. I’m not sure how this is ‘comedy’.
‘I’m not sure why our cash is paying for it. I’m not sure why the BBC isn’t challenging those determined to do all that they can to divide us with this hateful wordsoup of divisive dross.’
Another social media user tweeted: ‘Whiteness hurts black people’??? Really? Doesn’t sound like a joke to me. Imagine Frankie Boyle saying ‘Blackness hurts white people!”
One commented: ‘Shouldn’t Ofcom be monitoring and taking action against this kind of incitement to violence masquerading as comedy?’
It comes after Tim Davie, the BBC’s new Director-General, vowed to tackle the problem of ‘Left-wing comedy bias’ at the Corporation, over fears the broadcaster’s comedy output is seen as is seen as ‘too one-sided’.
Shows such as BBC Two’s satirical comedy The Mash Report and The Now Show on Radio 4 and Have I Got News For You have previously been criticised.
Meanwhile, an anti-BBC campaign group which aims to drastically reform the corporation’s governance has raised nearly £60,000 in donations.
Defund the BBC, a right-wing group founded by Brexiteers, began crowdfunding in June and aims to decriminalise non-payment of the TV licence fee.
The group is using the money to create campaign material including billboards, merchandise and advertisements across social media.
The campaign says it has three main goals: to raise awareness of the legal implications of cancelling a TV licence, to urge the government to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee and to lobby for the compulsory annual levy to be reduced to the lowest possible level in the BBC’s mid-charter review in 2022.
Defund the BBC, founded by James Yucel (left), has received more than £57,000 in donations amid fury over corporation’s ‘rich list’ published this week. The right-wing campaign is backed by prominent Brexiteer personalities including Darren Grimes (right) and Calvin Robinson
The flood of donations comes as the BBC came under fire after published accounts showed staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent up to £1.5billion this year.
Accounts published earlier this week showed that Zoe Ball is now the BBC’s highest earner after pocketing a £1million pay rise – knocking Gary Lineker off the top spot.
The Match of the Day star, 59, is understood to have signed a new five-year contract – and a nearly 25 per cent pay cut from £1.75million down to £1.35million.
While the Corporation said it was working towards closing the gender pay gap, anti-BBC campaigners say pay rises were given to those who were performing poorly.
They highlighted pay rises given to Zoe Ball, who has lost nearly a million listeners, and Lauren Laverne who hosts Desert Island Discs.
Defund the BBC’s Head of Press Liam Deacon told talkRADIO: ‘You might say this is because of a good instinct to correct this gender pay gap but really I think this is actually symptomatic of a structural fundamental problem with the BBC that pay and money is not tied to performance in the same way that it would be in a business.
‘The BBC is using our money in a really grotesque way.’