AN episode of BBC’s The Repair Shop was pulled after a TV production worker got offended by a “sexist” Bob Monkhouse gag.
An employee took offence at material in the late comic genius’ volumes of handwritten joke books, some dating as far back as the 1960s.
The hardback archives had been brought in for repair by Bob’s old comedy writing partner Colin Edmonds and the late star’s adopted daughter Abigail Williams.
Footage of their restoration at the show’s barn in Singleton, West Sussex, was due to be aired this year, in a special tribute to the much-loved entertainer who died in 2003 aged 75.
However it was thrown into chaos after a member of the production company Ricochet complained about one of Bob’s jokes, claiming it was sexist.
BBC bosses then decided to axe the planned segment, leaving the experts “disheartened”, and sparking ridicule.
A source told The Sun: “The BBC has been mocked for its wokery, but this really is a new low.
“A production employee stumbled across a joke – no doubt written in the 1960s – and took offence, believing it to be sexist.
“They flagged the problem, and a ‘collective decision’ was made to cull the whole thing.
“Experts waiting to lovingly restore the historical joke books were disheartened. And Bob’s loved ones, who had agreed to participate in the show to talk passionately about his life, were at a loss. This has to be the corporation’s most embarrassing decision yet.
“They deserve all the condemnation and contempt coming their way.”
Bob’s joke journals contained thousands of pages of meticulously handwritten gags, illustrated with cartoons and doodles from the man himself.
He started compiling them from the early 1960s and was still working on them just before he died.
Since his death, they were stored in suitcases under the desk of Mr Edmonds, who was gifted them in Bob’s will.
Among them were cartoons of buxom topless women and jokes that might today seem sexist.
Mr Edmonds said of them previously: “They are of their time. There are things that were acceptable in the Seventies which one wouldn’t dream of saying today.”
Bob, whose wife Jackie died in 2008, always carried a couple of books with him so he could add any fresh gags as they came to him.
It was these that were stolen in 1995, before they were returned 18 months later, with a £10,000 reward paid out.
Mr Edmonds had agreed to be filmed last year for The Repair Shop feature alongside Abigail.
The BBC told The Sun it was a “production decision” to axe the Bob Monkhouse Repair Shop show, which the corporation “supported out of consideration for all viewers”.
It added that “production evaluates each and every item” and “decisions on which to run are made with the viewer in mind”.
A Ricochet spokesperson said: “Making decisions on which items to repair and include in the programme is part of the normal production process. These decisions are based on a range of factors.”
