British sketch-comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look has returned to BBC iPlayer to mark the 20th anniversary of its debut—but viewers have discovered that the anniversary version is missing a number of sketches.
The series, which starred British comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb, originally aired on BBC Two from 2006 to 2010 and ran for four seasons. The pair are perhaps better known to American audiences as the stars of the cult British sitcom Peep Show, which has developed a substantial U.S. following through streaming.
According to The Times, 11 sketches have been removed from the newly available version of That Mitchell and Webb Look.
Among the deleted material are sketches involving World War II re-enactors in blackface, a fictional Indigenous tribe living in a garden center, a joke involving disgraced British television personality Jimmy Savile, and a sketch in which Mitchell wears a burqa.
One of the show's recurring devices was to have Mitchell and Webb appear as themselves after a sketch, discussing or questioning what viewers had just seen.
That approach was used following the burqa sketch. Webb questions whether the joke is simply making fun of people with sincerely held religious beliefs.
Mitchell responds that people can worry too much about what is considered offensive, arguing that something offensive to one person can be harmless fun to another.
The sketch then takes another turn: Mitchell removes the burqa to reveal that he is wearing blackface underneath.
The BBC confirmed that the anniversary release had been edited, saying the decision was made in consultation with the program's makers.
"That Mitchell and Webb Look has been made available on BBC iPlayer. This is a 20-year-old sketch show; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones that still work today and not the ones that don't," a BBC spokesperson said.
The decision is part of a broader question facing broadcasters and streaming services: What should happen to comedy made 15 or 20 years ago when some of its material no longer fits contemporary standards?
In 2020, the BBC and several streaming platforms removed Little Britain, the popular sketch series created by Matt Lucas and David Walliams. The BBC said at the time that it regularly reviewed older programming and that "times have changed" since the show originally aired.
Little Britain returned to BBC iPlayer in 2022 after edits were made, including the removal of sketches featuring blackface. The BBC said the changes were made by Lucas and Walliams to reflect changes in the cultural landscape since the show's original broadcast.
Mitchell and Webb have faced a similar situation with Peep Show. In 2020, Netflix edited an episode to remove a scene in which Webb's character, Jeremy, reluctantly wears blackface after being encouraged to push social boundaries by his girlfriend Nancy, played by Rachel Blanchard.
The That Mitchell and Webb Look cuts have already prompted debate in Britain over whether removing controversial material from older comedy protects audiences from offensive imagery—or strips away the context in which the material was originally intended to be satirical.
That distinction is particularly relevant to the Mitchell and Webb sketches, which frequently used offensive or uncomfortable imagery as the setup for a joke about prejudice, hypocrisy or social absurdity. Whether individual sketches successfully made that distinction is part of the debate surrounding the edits.
For American viewers unfamiliar with the series, That Mitchell and Webb Look is less a traditional sitcom than a collection of short, often surreal sketches. Some recurring characters and formats became popular enough to live beyond the show itself, while others were deliberately designed as one-off jokes.
The series is now available on BBC iPlayer, although the anniversary version does not contain all of the sketches from its original run.