Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss has said he’s in favour of trigger warnings on older TV shows and movies, as it helps people understand the time in which they were made.
The 59-year-old actor and writer believes it’s better for audiences to be aware of attitudes expressed in older media than to pretend showbiz has always been this bastion of progressive values.
Using the Talking Pictures TV channel as an example, which shows older shows and films, he said they show a small warning before what you’re watching begins.
‘Talking Pictures TV, before they show an old film, they just show a little disclaimer which says, ‘This reflects the attitudes of the time’, and then you watch the film,’ he said while appearing on the Scarred For Life podcast.
‘It’s a healthier way of looking at anything. If you pretend it never happened, it’s like everything was some strange showbiz utopia.
‘I think it’s much more important to talk about it than to just put it in a box and pretend it never happened.’
Mark’s no stranger to censorship. In 2020, his surreal dark comedy The League of Gentlemen was pulled from the streaming service Netflix over alleged blackface.
At the time, Deadline reported ‘Netflix has removed British comedy The League Of Gentlemen from its library after it featured the blackface character Papa Lazarou.’
Papa Lazarou, played by Reece Shearsmith, was one of the show’s most popular characters when he first appeared, but his makeup, which resembles a black and white minstrel have made him a controversial figure in more recent years.
While the creators, Mark, Reece, Jeremy Dyson, and Steve Pemberton, have always maintained that the character is not meant to be a racist caricature.
During an interview with The Independent in 2020, Steve and Reece were asked about Lazarou and if they understood why some people saw it as Blackface.
‘I guess so,’ replied Reece. ‘But it was never an existing character. It was not me doing a black man.
‘It was always this clown-like make-up, and we just came up with what we thought was the scariest idea to have in a sort of Child Catcher-like way. And I don’t think we ever had any complaints then.’
Do you think trigger warnings on TV shows are a good thing?
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Yes
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No
Even when we did the specials a couple of years ago, and that character reappeared – I may be wrong, but I don’t think we had any complaints,’ added Steve.
‘People know that it was a character, and the oddness and weird nature of that character doesn’t make you sit there and think, “What point are they trying to make?” It’s not a political thing at all.
‘I think that’s evident. I hope it is. He is just anotherworldly human,’ finished Reece.
A cult hit, the League of Gentlemen ran on the BBC from 1999 to 2002, and combined dark humour and horror.
The League of Gentlemen and Sherlock are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.
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