A BBC comedy that caused controversy is set to make a comeback to terrestrial television 20 years after its initial debut.
Little Britain will hit screens over the festive period as part of That's TV's Christmas line-up.
All three seasons of the show, which first aired in 2003, are scheduled for nightly broadcasts, with the first episode airing Saturday, December 16 at 9:05 PM on That's TV.
Created by the minds of David Walliams and Matt Lucas, the sketch series followed the extraordinary lives of a number of different, diverse British characters.
The comedy duo were criticized for their portrayals on the show, prompting the BBC and Netflix to remove the show from their platforms due to blackface sketches and other offensive humor.
Controversial comedy sketch Little Britain will air over the festive period as part of That's TV's Christmas line-up (pictured: Matt Lucas as wheelchair user Andy and David Walliams as Lou)
The sketch comedy program – which ran on BBC Three and BBC One from 2003 to 2006 – was removed from BBC iPlayer in 2020 after scenes were deemed offensive (David Walliams pictured as Little Britain character Dudley Punt (left) and Matt Lucas seen as Ting Tong Macadangdang (right)
Little Britain returned to streaming services in 2022 after producers removed offensive blackface scenes.
Guarantees were given at the time that some scenes had been removed by creators Matt and David, and advisory warnings were used at the start of some episodes.
Little Britain's most iconic characters, including Vicky Pollard and wheelchair user Andy, were retained, alongside others including Matt's gay Welshman Dafydd Thomas and David's transvestite Emily Howard.
As part of the show's 2022 revival, blackface characters including pastor Jesse King, Desiree DeVere, and other racial stereotypes such as Thai bride Ting Tong were left on the cutting room floor.
In a statement at the time, the BBC said: 'Little Britain has been made available to fans on BBC iPlayer following edits to the series by Matt and David that better reflect the changes in the cultural landscape over the past twenty years since the show began. was made for the first time.'
Matt and David have both previously apologized for their use of blackface on the show, which started as a radio program in 2000 and appeared as a TV series on the BBC between 2003 and 2007, launching their respective careers.
Kris Vaiksalu, Head of Programming, That's TV, expressed his excitement about screening the popular comedy during the Christmas season, saying, “The festive season is a time of joy and spreading warmth through laughter.
'This year we're particularly excited to showcase the comedic genius of Matt Lucas and David Walliams, marking twenty years since the beginning of Little Britain.'
Acting: Daffyd Thomas, a gay Welshman played by Matt, repeatedly claims he is the 'only gay in the village' of the fictional mining village of Llandewi, Wales in the show
'When this show premiered 20 years ago, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon, elevating Lucas and Walliams to the status of comedy icons.
“On this anniversary, it has special meaning for us to present Little Britain every evening during our comedy festival during Christmas week.”
He added: “This holiday season is a unique time and we want to share the joy with an unprecedented series of holiday comedy specials.”
It comes after fellow comedian Peter Kay defended the controversial show and said he was happy to be cast in the 2006 special Little Britain Abroad.
According to the Mirror, the northern comedian wrote in his book TV: Big Adventures on the Small Screen: 'I would play the younger brother of Dudley Punt (David Walliams).
“He just married his Thai bride, Ting Tong Macadangdang (Matt Lucas), to make her an honest man/woman.
'They go on their honeymoon to Belgium and meet my character. I live in a caravan park with my new 18-year-old virgin wife Ivanka (Julia Davis), “who set me back two hundred quid”.
'It was far from politically correct, but that made it funny. It probably wouldn't get made now.
'Unfortunately, Matt and David have received a lot of criticism in recent years for the work they did. That's too bad.'
Peter added that 'comedy is such a minefield' and claimed that political correctness is constantly changing.
He emphasized that while being politically correct sometimes produces good, most of the time it is a hindrance.
The star concluded: “Everyone is a critic on social media. Something or someone is being 'slammed on Twitter', which may only be a handful of people.”