Famed comedy writer Roy Clarke warns that political correctness is holding back comedy

From the bigoted comments of Alf Garnett in Till Death Us Do Part to the flamboyance of Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served?, in decades past they were characters that turned sitcoms into must-see shows.

But yesterday veteran TV writer Roy Clarke warned such shows would struggle to be created in this day and age because of the rise of political correctness and a fear of offending.

Clarke, now 86, has penned some of the most popular TV shows of all time from Keeping Up Appearances to Last Of The Summer Wine and Open All Hours. He lamented the ‘thought police’ are having a ‘destructive’ impact on our ability to be able to laugh at ourselves.

He said yesterday: ‘I don’t know how they (audience) would handle it if we put out an episode of Alf Garnett out today as we have become so prissy about everything. I really don’t know how people would handle it.

‘Everybody would get upset. Whatever you say these days you upset somebody. It is not like the old days. Now they feel entitled to be upset. I think we have lost all common sense.

‘Back then when these shows were made we were able to laugh at each other. I don’t like political correctness. I think it has been destructive for life.

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Clarke is famous for writing one of Britain's most celebrated sitcoms, Are You Being Served?

‘As a writer it is hard now when you put pen to paper as I never used to think like that. I am an old man now. But it never occurred to me when I was young that the thought police would be around. It is outrageous but there you are.’

Clarke has written a one-off prequel to Keeping Up Appearances which will be shown later this year. The episode, Young Hyacinth, is set in the 1950s and sees actress Kerry Howard play Britain’s biggest snob, middle-class busybody Hyacinth Bucket, played by Patricia Routledge from 1990 to 1995.

The episode is part of the BBC’s ‘landmark sitcom’ season which will run later this year to mark 60 years since Hancock’s Half Hour appeared on BBC television, having been a radio hit.

It will include classics including Till Death Us Do Part, Are You Being Served? Porridge and Steptoe & Son.

The 1967 episode of Till Death Us Do part which saw actor Warren Mitchell play Garnett, has been renamed A Woman’s Place Is In the Home.

Written at a time when it was acceptable to make jokes some would now consider racist, sexist or homophobic, there were concerns some elements of the show may be toned down.

However at a press conference on Wednesday night assurances were given this had not happened.

‘I don’t know how they (audience) would handle it if we put out an episode of Alf Garnett out today,' Clark said in reference to the character's frequently bigoted quips

Reflecting on the tastes of modern audiences, actor Simon Day who plays Garnett in the remake shared an anecdote from the filming of the episode revealing the audience was alarmed to hear the words ‘saucy bitch’. He said: ‘It was a very good episode to do as it was very simple. But it was very much of its time. We filmed it in Glasgow and when I came out with the line “You saucy bitch” you could hear the audience go “Whoah”. And that’s Glasgow! That’s foreplay in Glasgow. I was like “So we can’t laugh now at him [Garnett] shouting at girls? Not really”’.

Shane Allen, the BBC’s Comedy Controller said he commissioned the series because it was important to ‘fly the flag for Britishness’.

He also confessed there were concerns about the PC brigade: ‘He (Alf Garnett) made comments about race and Britain at the time. Today there is that PC backlash if you make jokes about sex or race. You are not able to comment on those.