David Jason, best know for his roles as Del Boy and Inspector Frost, has found himself embroiled in a race row after a comment he made on the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio.
On the 'Who's Calling Christian' feature – where celebrities ring up with a chance to win £20,000 for charity – Jason was asked for a question for the next guest. He replied: "What do you call a Pakistani cloakroom attendant?" Before delivering the punch line: 'Me hat, me coat.'
The joke was edited out of the show’s podcast posted later that morning. A spokesman for Jason said that the actor was: “Sorry and distressed that that joke upset people.”
Director of Mediawatch John Beyer added: “It was an inappropriate comment, although I do not think it was meant in an offensive way. People in the media need to learn the lesson that these kind of jokes are not appreciated any more.”
Absolute Radio has since issued a statement saying: “The comments made by David Jason were unacceptable and Christian O’Connell distanced himself from them live on-air by swiftly saying, “no more jokes like that”. To minimise any offence amongst our listeners we also edited the comments from the Breakfast Show podcast. We consider the views of our listeners to be very important and have received no complaints about these comments. David Jason has already apologised. We will continue to monitor any complaints and Christian O’Connell will issue an on-air apology in tomorrow’s breakfast show.”
