"KINGS OF COMEDY" COMPLAINT

This reality series featured stand-up comedians living and entertaining in their own 'comedy club' and competing for viewers' votes. The series was mainly shown in the evening, but E4 ran some live streaming from the 'club' during the afternoon. A viewer complained that the word 'cunt' was used in an exchange between two comedians.

Response E4 said that it apologised for this unfortunate error. Had it been noticed at the time, an apology would have been given on air. The word had been missed by the compliance team in a genuine mistake. Janey Godley had lowered her tone when she uttered the expletive and it had been partly obscured by Stan Boardman?s laughter. The camera was primarily on Boardman at the time, which led the team to focus on his speech rather than hers.

E4 said that it had developed a time-delayed, two-tiered monitoring method for complying such live programmes, and this had become the model used by all broadcasters. E4 said that it had an excellent record and this was an unfortunate but extremely rare lapse. Staff had been reminded of the need to maintain vigilance. Decision We agree that such swearing is unacceptable for broadcast at that time of day. However, the word was certainly somewhat muffled and we understand how it came to be overlooked. We are satisfied that the channel has measures in place to enable unsuitable material to be edited out, and accept that this was an individual lapse. In view of E4's response to this matter, we consider the issue resolved.

OFCOM CORRECTION AND APOLOGY

In Ofcom’s Broadcast Bulletin (No 25) published yesterday (4 January ), it was stated in error that the actress and comedienne Janey Godley had uttered the word ‘cunt’ in the course of a programme in the series Kings of Comedy. We wish to correct this immediately. It was not the case. It was not, in fact, Janey Godley who said this but another performer.

We apologise unreservedly to Ms Godley for this genuine mistake, and have published a corrected version of Bulletin No 25.

"TV WATCHDOG APOLOGISES TO COMIC"
by Steve Bennett

TV watchdogs have taken the possibly unprecedented step of apologising to a comedian they criticised.

In a ruling published this week, Ofcom investigated a complaint that the word ‘cunt’ was transmitted during an early-afternoon live feed from the set of reality show Kings Of Comedy in October. And they attributed the utterance to Janey Godley, one of the stand-ups confined to the house for the duration of the show.

However, the watchdogs now say they made a mistake – and say it was another of the contestants who swore. A spokesman for Ofcom said: “It was not, in fact, Janey Godley who said this. We apologise unreservedly to Ms Godley for this genuine mistake. We wish to correct this immediately.”

Godley said: “ Ofcom are the people who are supposed to monitor us - not accuse wrongly.”

JANEY IS A GOOD GODLEY AFTER ALL

See Ofcom, see busybodies. The broadcasting watchdog reprimanded Calton comedian Janey Godley for supposedly using the "C" word on Channel 4's Kings of Comedy. Good Godley would never use such language - on air, at least - and we're pleased to see Ofcom uttering a grovelling apology. You got it wrong, ya bass. And it was not co-star Stan Boardman either. He was too busy going on about Fokkers.

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FRIDAY 14th JANUARY 2005

BROADCAST MAGAZINE

While Jerry Springer - The Opera has sparked debate about acceptable levels of swearing on TV, media regulator Ofcom has also been having problems with foul language on the box. The only problem was it pointed the finger of blame at the wrong person.