Classic Fawlty Towers episode returns to UKTV after years off air over 'racial slurs'

A classic episode of the beloved comedy Fawlty Towers has been reinstated to the streaming service UKTV with a warning about "offensive content and language". The 1975 episode, titled The Germans, was taken off the BBC-owned platform because of "racial slurs".

In the controversial episode, the character Major Gowen uses highly offensive language as hotel owner Basil Fawlty declares "don't mention the war". UKTV had temporarily removed the episode while it carried out an internal review. The move was previously criticised by Cleese who wrote on : "I would have hoped that someone at the BBC would understand that there are two ways of making fun of human behaviour.

"One is to attack it directly. The other is to have somebody who is patently a figure of fun, speak up on behalf of that behaviour." While the episode is best remembered for Fawlty's goose-stepping, it also contains scenes showing Major Gowen using offensive language about the West Indies cricket team.

According to reports, the major's scenes had already started to be edited out by some broadcasters. UKTV also operate channels like Gold, and many of its channels and its digital player were taken over by the BBC's commercial arm BBC Studios last year.

A UKTV statement at the time said: "We already offer guidance to viewers across some of our classic comedy titles, but we recognise that more contextual information can be required on our archive comedy, so we will be adding extra guidance and warnings to the front of programmes to highlight potentially offensive content and language.

"We will reinstate Fawlty Towers once that extra guidance has been added, which we expect will be in the coming days. We will continue to look at what content is on offer as we always have done."

The Germans is still available to view on Britbox, which is partially owned by the BBC, but includes a warning message to viewers. It reads: "Contains some offensive racial language of the time and upsetting scenes."

It is also on Netflix, carrying a warning about "language, [and] discrimination". In 2013, it was reported that Cleese agreed for the offending lines to be edited out when it was repeated on TV.