The remake of the BBC’s classic comedy series Dad’s Army will contain some derogatory jokes about Germans, the Daily Star tabloid reports.
It is understood that in the re-created episodes, one character calls the Germans “the Boche” (a disparaging term the Allies used to refer to German soldiers during WW2), while another brands them Schweinhunds (pig dogs, a now-uncommon German insult).
In another gag, one man jokes about a suspected spy who has nowhere to wash in his house: “My God, I think he IS German!”
Dad’s Army has become a cultural phenomenon in Britain and repeats of the sitcom are still popular.
It follows the adventures of members of the Home Guard – the armed citizen militia that were ineligible for military service but voluntarily defended Britain’s coastline during the Second World War from Nazi invasion.
TV producer Daisy Goodwin has recently called upon the BBC to cancel the series because it allegedly promulgates a pro-Brexit sentiment.
“If you really want to nail the BBC for influencing the nation's state of mind about Brexit, you might look at how often Dad's Army has been shown on BBC Two,” she said.
“The BBC, if it wants to maintain its claim to impartiality, needs to retire the home guard (or send them on leave), because in the words of Private Frazer, ‘we are all doomed!’”
But the BBC-owned UKTV, which is in charge of the upcoming remake, stood by the missing episodes, which will use the original scripts written back in the 1960s.
“Our stance is not to edit great comedies of the past if we can avoid it,” a spokesman for channel said.
“And in this case the scripts reflect the mood of the country at that time in history and are based on the experiences of the writers including Jimmy Perry’s service in the Home Guard during the Second World War.”
