10:10AM, Oct 27, 2009
Controversial comedian Frankie Boyle has had a pop at the BBC.
He reckons that TV shows will become boring because of tighter rules on what entertainers are allowed to say.
Frankie recently left the Beeb's Mock The Week after he made an off-colour joke about Olympic gold medallist swimmer Rebecca Adlington.
In its first ruling since announcing a crackdown on cruel and humliating comedy, the BBC Trust said there was no justification for making such a remark about the swimmer's appearance. It ruled that the comment was both "humiliating" and "offensive".
The BBC's ban on on scenes of intimidation, humiliation or derogatory remarks follow last year's Sachs-gate scandal, which saw Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand reprimanded for inappropriate behaviour.
But Frankie thinks the ruling will make TV "dull".
He told The Mirror: "It's a question of how boring people want TV to be from now on.
"People aren't going to be happy until you boil it down to just cooking and f*****g property shows. F******g hell, it's so f*****g boring already.
"I don't think it's even PC. I think it's just dull people who want dull TV.
"Those jokes weren't that risqué anyway. There was no malice in them."
The BBC Trust recently dismissed complaints about another episode of the weekly panel show, in which Frankie made a sexual reference to the Queen.
The Trust concluded that the joke was "in bad taste" but was broadcast long after the watershed and was "within audience expectations for the show".
Frankie is now writing a pilot comedy for Channel 4.
