Harry Enfield has revealed that he sent an abusive letter to BBC Two’s former controller after she cut a character from a sketch show.
The comedian, who rose to fame with characters like Kevin the Teenager and Loadsamoney, made four series of Harry & Paul alongside Paul Whitehouse.
Starring Enfield and Whitehouse in various skits, the show aired from 2007 until 2012, being moved from BBC One to BBC Two due to falling ratings.
Speaking to The Times on Friday (6 March), Enfield revealed that he clashed with Janice Hadlow – the BBC Two controller during the show’s run – after she cut some of the show’s new characters. The changes were brought in shortly after the historic allegations of child sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile came to light in 2012.
One sketch featured a “feral” family in a supermarket “who’d never seen fresh vegetables before”, with the father calling his teenage son a homophobic slur for comparing a cucumber to a sex toy.
“The teenage boy picks up a cucumber and says, ‘I’m gonna buy this dildo for my girlfriend,’” he said. “His dad says, ‘Your boyfriend more like, you little p***.’ ”
Enfield added that Hadlow cut the sketch and all other skits featuring the character were pulled from the show as they were “sexualising this teenage child”.
“The controller [Janice Hadlow] got scared when there was nothing to be scared of,” he said.
“I thought, ‘F*** off. How old were you when you first realised how funny a dildo was?’ I wrote her a letter saying, ‘You’re a coward and you’re stupid,’ and someone later told me I made her cry.
“F*** off. You’re the head of BBC2 — don’t f***ing cry. You shouldn’t have that job. After that I thought, ‘I can’t work with these people.’ ”
The Independent has contacted Hadlow and the BBC for comment.
Hadlow took on the role as BBC Two controller in 2008 after working as Channel 4’s Head of History, Art and Religion and the controller of BBC Four. She stayed in the role until 2014 before becoming responsible for the BBC’s special project and seasons.
Six years later, she wrote her first novel, The Other Bennet Sister, which has been adapted by the BBC with Ruth Jones, Richard E. Grant and Ella Bruccoleri starring.
Enfield began his career on Spitting Image in 1985 before debuting a number of his often-quoted characters on Channel 4’s Saturday Live. He took on roles in sitcom Behaving Badly and E4 drama Skins before Harry & Paul hit our screens.
After it came to an end in 2012, Enfield appeared in BBC Three’s Bad Education, Ben Elton’s Upstart Crow and sitcom The Windsors – receiving a BAFTA nomination in 2017 for his impersonation of the future King Charles III.
In recent years, Enfield has defended a number of his controversial sketches – including one in which he portrayed South African president Nelson Mandela in blackface.
The 2007 skit saw Mandela become the face of various adverts, where he promoted alcopops, heroin and cocaine. Speaking on The Third Act podcast last October, Enfield said that he “did get in trouble a bit” over the sketch.
“Anyway, we used to be what was called blacked up, but cultural imperialism has taken the phrase ‘Blackface’ from America, where there is a very different culture,” he said.
He added that he thought the sketch was “so absurd” that no one would take offence.
“But the only thing that really offended them wasn’t that it was that, but it was me doing it – and not someone with a different coloured skin,” he continued. “I get it now. I wouldn’t do it now, but it’s a shame.”
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