Gordon Ramsay in hot water over F Word

The broadcasting regulator said The Channel 4 special called Ramsay's Great British Nightmare, broadcast on 30 January, included 115 uses of the words f..k', f..king' and f..ked.' in its first 40 minutes.

In a ruling that could have wider implications for the use of foul language on British television, the broadcast regulator said even hardened Ramsay viewers were "shocked and offended by the combination of the sheer freqency of the offensive language and the way some of it was delivered."

Ofcom was most concerned by the level of swearing straight after the 9pm start of the two hour programme, in which Ramsay - one of whose most successful shows is called The F-Word - overhauled two failing kitchens.
Its investigation found that there were 37 uses of the word f..k or its derivatives in the first 15 minutes.

In one particularly intense segment of sustained swearing a chef berated his boss, the word "f..cking" was heard 30 times in just 120 seconds at a rate of a profanity every four seconds, though to be a record for British television.

Ofcom also objected to the aggressive use of the swearing and said there was no editorial justification for it as in other programmes known for their high use of offensive language, such as the political satire The Thick of It.

A spokesman for Ofcom said: "We acknowledged that the presenter is known for using offensive language and the programme was broadcast after the watershed. However, the sheer intensity of the language in this two hour Ramsay special so soon after 9pm meant that even frequent viewers of his normal shows were unprepared."

In its ruling Ofcom said the programme breached 2.3 of its broadcasting code because of the "scale, frequency and way in which the most offensive language was delivered." It went "significantly beyond what could be reasonably anticipated by regular viewers at this time of the evening." Ofcom received 51 complaints from viewers after the programme.

One complainant said:"The excessive use of bad language by Gordon Ramsay was just unreal and abusive way in which he continulally uses to speak to others. The use of the F-word once or twice maybe but its continued use in almost every sentence was totally unnecessary."

Channel 4 said it accepted it had made a mistake in scheduling the show so early in the evening. In a statement it said:" We respect that given the strength of language in the first part of this 2 hour special the programme should have been scheduled later than 9pm...We accept that in the instance of scheduling this two hour special we got it wrong, and that some viewers were offended by the strong language in the first part of the programme."

A spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay said: "Great British Nightmare followed Gordon trying to save two restaurants in the most difficult predicaments.These extreme challenges gave rise to many heated exchanges in the double length programme. But Gordon had no intention of causing offence and is sorry if Channel 4's scheduling of the programme upset some viewers."