BBC Radio 4 programme which made lewd jokes about the Queen on her 90th birthday will be investigated by Ofcom
Don't Make Me Laugh was already found to have breached the BBC’s own editorial guidelines
A BBC RADIO 4 programme which made lewd jokes about the Queen’s sex life on her 90th birthday will be investigated by Ofcom.
Don’t Make Me Laugh, presented by funnyman David Baddiel, 52, was already found to have breached the BBC’s own editorial guidelines.
Now the media regulator is also to carry out its own probe after it had 12 complaints about remarks made by panelists on the show.
The programme aired at 6.30pm on the Queen’s Birthday on April 21 and included various jokes about Her Majesty having sex.
Among the guests on the show making the comments was comedian Russell Kane, 41.
Ofcom said: “We’re investigating whether the potentially offensive nature of the jokes in this programme was justified by the context.”
The recent BBC Trust ruling had found the show guilty of breaking rules on “harm and offence”.
The show in question included the subject “The Queen must have had sex at least four times”.
The panel of comedians featured were Omid Djalili, Sara Pascoe, Russell Kane and Adam Hess.
Kane, 41, made a number of lewd comments about Her Majesty and Prince Phillip which grossly offended a number of listeners.
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The premise of the programme is that comedians must try not to make the audience laugh as they discuss a particular subject, which then rotates between contestants.
The BBC Trust said: “Trustees considered that this output included personal, intrusive and derogatory comments which had exceeded the expectations of the audience. The offence felt was compounded by the date of the programme’s transmission.
“Panellists made comments about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in a way that was personal, intrusive and demeaning,” an official summary noted.
The BBC accepted it had received complaints from listeners following the broadcast issued a formal apology on its Corrections and Clarifications section.
“While BBC Radio 4 comedy is a broad church and often pushes boundaries, we would like to apologise for this broadcast of Don’t Make Me Laugh,” a statement at the time said.
"We never intended for the scheduling of the programme to coincide with The Queen’s birthday and are sorry for the offence caused by its timing and content.”
Baddiel offered an apology at the time on Twitter, writing: “Thanks for all nice comments. Sorry to royalists about Queen round. R4 rescheduled, that ep meant to go next week.”
The BBC informed the Palace of its apology and also removed the programme from its iPlayer.
It also did not repeat the transmission and moved the remainder of the series to a later time slot of 11pm.