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A spoof advert on Top Gear in which a man shot himself in the head was too graphic for the show's younger viewers, Ofcom ruled today.
The BBC 2 show, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, breached broadcasting rules on the depiction of violence, the broadcasting watchdog said.
One sequence spoofing a Volkswagen campaign showed a man "holding the gun to his temple and firing and blood splattering into the air", the watchdog said. Another featured an actor holding his severed arm with blood spurting from the wound.
The BBC received 50 complaints and removed the sequence from a repeat showing the next day but argued that the adverts, shown before the 9pm watershed on 2 August, were "ludicrous and obviously comic".
However, Ofcom criticised the "realistic depiction" of the suicide and reprimanded the BBC for not alerting viewers that the sequence may be unsuitable for children. It said: "Many viewers would not have expected such a violent scene."
Top Gear escaped censure over another spoof advert, which joked about Germany's invasion of Poland, triggering hundreds of complaints.
Reader views (9)
Lucky it wasn't J Ross who did it otherwise I'm sure this page would be inundated with comments.
- David, London, 10/11/2009 09:28
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How did it backfire? Everyone who reads this will
a) think those 50 people were a little silly to call in and complain and
b) be sympathetic to the Top Gear presenters
Great publicity for them. I wouldn't be surprised if Clarkson called up 50 times to do the complaining!
- St, London, 10/11/2009 08:23
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more than a thousand coplain about vile treatment of BNP leader Griffin and nothing is done about it
But only 50 complaints from Nanny State Britain over Top Gear
no wonder the BBC is a grubby kosker parasitic joke organization,..and now the puppet of New Labour instead
- A Brown, UK, 09/11/2009 23:12
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Any chance of the BBC showing a programme about cars or is that too much to ask ?
- Doug Watt, london (EUSSR)14, 09/11/2009 20:36
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50 complaints!! but I wonder how many viewers thought it was funny but didn't call to let the Beeb know. Obviously the nannies at Ofcom never saw some of Monty Python's sketches.
- Steve, Gravesend UK, 09/11/2009 16:53
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It is clear that TG is not really a motoring programme anymore, the BBC see it as just another comedy and sometimes the three clowns and the programmes producers get it wrong.
- Mike M, Bedford England, 09/11/2009 16:03
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They had obviously just received the bill for a service!
- Justin Time, London, 09/11/2009 15:40
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Get a grip BBC. You are not there to shove your immature and moronic "liberal" sensibilities down our throats. You are there to serve the licence payer. It says all your ever need to know about top-down bureaucracies. They make great claims about serving the public but it is all noise. In reality because there is a disconnect between them and the viewers (because the money rolls in whatever) they have no sensitivity - quite the opposite (they can be as insenstive as they like and excuse it as "innovation" or being "cutting edge" or some other self-serving tripe. The EU is the other great bureaucracy diconnected from its "people" - in their case because the core elements of power have no direct relationship with the electorate. That's why they also show utter contempt for their "puclic". The answer with the BBC is to commercialise it. The answer with the EU is to its every decision subject to a referendum (thus forcing all but the most important decisions down the chain).
- Digger, London, 09/11/2009 15:13
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everyone knows that the Satnav on all German cars automatically directs you to Poland...
- Jon Jizzinski, London, 09/11/2009 15:00
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