Letter from the Editor: Time to leave these former '˜classics' alone

To be clear, I’m not talking about the sort of crimes committed by Jimmy Saville and others who have been made to face up to their abhorent activities as a result of Operation Yewtree.

In these cases, I fully support any and all actions taken to bring them to justice.

What I’m really referring to are the distinctly non-PC programmes which seemed to be a staple of our television schedules in decades gone by.

These are now resurfacing in shows such as It Was Alright in the ’70s, – with some C-list celebrities rolled out to comment on what passed as entertainment at the time – and re-runs of such former favourites as Top of the Pops.

I find sketches poking fun at people’s sexuality, race or nationality as cringeworthy as the next person but, like it or not, these were accepted – if not altogether acceptable – in previous generations.

I even stumbled across one where Lenny Henry did a link for a 1984 Top of the Pops special dressed as Stevie Wonder and looked to get a laugh from his disability as he struggled to locate a keyboard.

I’m sure it’s not something he would care to repeat today but, back then, no-one batted a eyelid.

Only Fools and Horses is rightly considered one of our greatest TV comedies ever but trawl through the archives and you’ll even find a few darker moments there.

Surely the solution is not to revive these programmes to stir up debate but instead leave them in the dusty archives where they belong.