Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

BBC axes Nish Kumar's show 'to make room for new comedy shows'

THE BBC has axed the left-wing satire show The Mash Report to 'make room for new comedy shows'.

The show, a satirical take on the week's news which featured Nish Kumar and Rachel Parris, first aired in 2017.


Kumar hit back at the broadcaster's decision to cancel the programme, posting a picture of himself in front of the words 'Boris Johnson is a liar and a racist', reported The Daily Mail.

"A lot of people asking me for a comment and here it is," he wrote on Twitter.

"We are very proud of The Mash Report but, in order to make room for new comedy shows, we sometimes have to make difficult decisions and it won't be returning," the BBC said in a statement.

"We would like to thank all those involved in four brilliant series and hope to work with Nish Kumar, Rachel Parris and the team in the future."

In 2018, broadcaster Andrew Neil singled out the satire show while complaining that the corporation's comedy output was too left-wing, The Daily Mail report said

He called the BBC Two programme 'self-satisfied, self-adulatory, unchallenged left-wing propaganda'.

In September last year, director-general  Tim Davie told staff the BBC needed to keep reforming 'with urgency' and stressed it must be 'a universal public service'.

Many view the latest action is in line with his statement. "Love the show and this is unfair," a user wrote on Twitter.

But others disagreed, with another person said: "The Mash Report was terrible, that's why it's been cancelled." Another person posted: "Can I just point out The Mash Report was completely unfunny."

Kumar, who also hosted Joel & Nish vs The World, often centres his stand-up routine on political matters and he is no stranger to controversy.

In December 2018, he apologised for giving a platform to Steve Topple, a 'left-wing journalist who promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories'.

In 2019, he said 'the architects of Brexit are a cocktail of lying racists and buffoons', reports said.

Last year, a show he hosted, Horrible Histories Brexit, provoked outrage after suggesting Britain had historically failed to produce anything of note, relying instead on imports.

Historian Andrew Roberts described the ten-minute show, which was released to coincide with the departure from the EU, as 'a stream of bigoted hatred directed against this country'.

In 2019, Kumar had bread thrown at him and was booed off stage after making a political joke at a charity cricket lunch.

Speaking on Graham Norton’s New Year’s Eve special, Kumar described long-time Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as ‘a sack of meat brought to life by a witch’s curse’.

The BBC's decision to axe the show comes ahead of its annual TV licence fee being increased by £1.50, from £157.50 to £159, from 1 April 2021. This is the equivalent of £13.12 per month.

More For You

Vishwash-Kumar-ANI

The British citizen, who lives in Leicester, central England, walked away from the wreckage in what he has called “a miracle”, but lost his brother in the crash. (Photo: ANI)

Getty Images

Air India crash sole survivor says he lives with pain and trauma

THE ONLY only survivor of June’s Air India crash has spoken to UK media about the mental and physical pain he continues to suffer months after the disaster in Ahmedabad.

Vishwash Kumar Ramesh told in interviews aired and published on Monday that the period since the crash, which killed 241 passengers on the London-bound flight and 19 people on the ground, has been “very difficult.”

Keep ReadingShow less