Curry and Chips

Background

The programme's stated ambition was to highlight discrimination rather than promote it, but the Independent Television Authority disagreed and cancelled the show after six episodes. Johnny Speight later said the English were made to look bigoted, but the ITA could not understand that and deemed the show racist. The Race Relations Board also originally complained about the series. Screenonline commented that the show attempted to raise important questions but lacked a strong enough voice to challenge racist attitudes, relying too much on crude racial abuse and Milligan's caricatured performance as the character nicknamed 'Paki Paddy'. Shocked reactions from viewers and cultural commentators led to the show being dropped. The series was also controversial for its swearing; the word 'bloody' appeared 59 times in one episode, though Eric Sykes refused to swear until doing so once in the final episode. Six years later, Milligan again blacked up for the BBC series The Melting Pot, of which only one episode was shown.