Henry defiant on stammering spoof

Comic Relief has been criticised for scoring something of an own goal in this year’s fund-raising TV comedy fest. Paul Carter reports

The founder of Comic Relief, Richard Curtis has been forced to apologise after a sketch parodying The King’s Speech starring Lenny Henry was slammed by stammering campaigners for being offensive and disablist.

In a formal complaint to the BBC over the sketch, seen by Disability Now, the British Stammering Association (BSA) expressed “utter dismay” and called for a public apology for the “serious and widespread offence to people who stammer and those who support them.”

It says: “It may not have occurred to you, but stammering, like other disabilities, is covered by the Equalities Act and people who stammer have the right to protection under the Act, just as, for example, people with cerebral palsy. What might we look forward to next time – Lenny Henry mimicking someone with cerebral palsy?”

“Somehow it seems, that stammering and children who stammer, are still fair game for public ridicule. This is particularly depressing after the excellent awareness raising campaign we mounted in the wake of the release of The King’s Speech – we had hoped that such crass and insensitive behaviour would have become a thing of the past, particularly from the national broadcaster, and especially from Comic Relief.”

Norbert Lieckfeldt, Chief Executive of the BSA, says the complaint is not about his organisation being “po-faced” or lacking in sense of humour, but is more about the association with Comic Relief, and the subsequent hurt it caused to many people involved in raising funds for the charity.

“A show that is designed to raise money for disability is not the place to mock people with disabilities,” he says.

“Comic Relief might say it was meant to spoof the film but no-one who does not themselves stammer can tell us how to feel. If that kind of sketch had been shown on the Frankie Boyle show, I doubt we would have complained as bad taste is what one would expect when switching on the telly to watch that.

“BSA have had many responses from parents of stammering children who have raised money for Comic Relief. And so they sat down, as a family, to celebrate their child raising £37.50 for Comic Relief and the first thing they hear is his stammer being mocked and, as one mum said to us, in exactly the same language the bullies in his school use every day.

“Following this, we have had stories about youngsters on the Monday morning following the show, cancelling their participation in the school play because they don’t want to get laughed at; of a speech therapist telling us of a teenager who is desperate to hide his stammer and who, after lengthy therapy, had finally agreed to let the therapist talk to his teacher only to pull out on Monday morning; of a speech therapist telling us of months of therapy required to coax a person who stammers out of mutism because he stopped speaking when his line manager tapped his watch whenever he talked – and there are many more stories where these ones come from.”

Richard Curtis, one of the founders and organisers of Comic Relief said in an interview he was “very sorry” for any offence that the sketch may have caused.

Speaking to Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5 Live, Curtis said: “Comic Relief does spend money on bullying, that’s one of the things we do deal with here in the UK, and I’m sure we were just thinking about the huge fame of that film at that time and the immediacy of it.

“Certainly I’d never want to give that impression [of bullying] and if we did I am sorry about that. It was meant to be a big joke about a very famous film rather than anything to do with the stammering or to cause offence and I would apologise for that.”

However, Lenny Henry, who appeared in the Comic Relief sketch, was less receptive to suggestions of disablism.

“I thought the King’s Speech sketch was funny. Very funny,” he says.

“I make no apologies for it. The fact we almost raised £100million and people want to talk about that is a bit strange.”