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Frankie Boyle’s planned comeback has been axed by BBC chiefs over a tasteless joke about a royal’s murder.

The foul-mouthed comic had been lined up for a new series five years after quitting Mock the Week and a year after Beeb bosses admitted his return would be ­“difficult”.

His edgy radio comedy – named Blocked – starred David Mitchell as a frustrated playwright-turned-theatre boss.

But BBC executives were horrified to find the pilot show included sick jokes about the IRA killing of Lord Mountbatten.

The story centred around Mitchell being wrongly accused of the 1979 murder.

A BBC insider said Boyle was now deemed “too risky and controversial”.

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Boyle, 42, had been attacked for his raw humour during seven years on Mock the Week.

The BBC also cut his Comic Relief segment two years ago, ruling it offensive.

BBC comedy chief Shane Allen, who was keen to bring him back, hoped the Radio 4 show would eventually move to TV.

Boyle said: “They didn’t commission it because we made a joke about the assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten.”

Lord Mountbatten, 79, died with grandson Nicholas, 14, and two others when the IRA hid a bomb on his fishing boat.

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