More than 120 people complained about episode of Radio 4’s Don’t Make Me Laugh that aired on monarch’s 90th birthday

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

BBC Radio 4 has axed a show hosted by David Baddiel after outrage over jokes about the Queen’s sex life on her 90th birthday.

Don’t Make Me Laugh, which is created and fronted by Baddiel, features panellists discussing topics they are given.



One pre-recorded episode, which aired at 6.30pm on the day of the Queen’s 90th birthday, included the subject “The Queen must have had sex at least four times”.

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Panellists, who included the comic Russell Kane, made sex jokes about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The BBC received more than 120 complaints about the show and the corporation’s governing body, the BBC Trust, ruled that the panellists’ comments were “personal, intrusive and demeaning”.

Baddiel later apologised for the offensive section of the show and said that it was never meant to be scheduled to air on the Queen’s birthday but the week after.



Partly as a result of the broadcast the BBC decided to move the show from 6.30pm to 11pm, but it has never commented on the future of Baddiel’s programme.

The corporation has now decided to cancel the show but is understood to be keen to work with Baddiel again in the future.

“We’re lucky to receive hundreds of great ideas from brilliant comedians who want to work with Radio 4, and we always bring a mix of returning shows to our audiences whilst also finding space for new programmes in our packed schedule,” said a spokeswoman for BBC Radio 4.



“This means not all shows get recommissioned as otherwise it would be impossible to try out fresh formats and ideas.”

It is understood that the BBC’s decision to drop the series was not based on the BBC Trust ruling on the episode featuring the Queen joke.

The BBC Trust’s investigation of the incident found a number of concerning compliance failures.

It found that the BBC’s editor, editorial standards, had listened to a “rough cut” of the programme in advance but had determined that the section about the Queen “did not raise an issue in terms of editorial standards”.

The editor had previously requested “significant” changes to other programmes in the series.

In addition So Radio, the independent production company that made the programme, did not highlight the potential issue when filling in compliance forms for the show for the corporation.

The compliance form asks whether output includes “potentially controversial references to public figures”.

So Radio, a division of So Television, the production company co-founded by Graham Norton and sold to ITV answered “no”.

The BBC said that the incident was a “regrettable failure of editorial judgement and compliance processes”.