30 January 2012 (Comedy News)

Words: Caroline Foran

Perhaps the most divisive and controversial comedians of all time, Glaswegian Frankie Boyle has landed himself, yet again, in a spot of bother. As per The Daily Mail, the stand up that we last week touted as 'the most misunderstood comic in the world' has been given the boot by Channel 4 following a string of complaints about his show, Tramadol Nights. And by string we mean over 500. But what did they expect? Sugar and spice and all things nice? Come ON, it's Frankie Boyle, not Michael McIntyre. Channel 4 should really have known what they were signing themselves up for. No stranger to landing himself on the front pages of the UK's papers, Boyle is far from shocked at the news.

"I was really happy with it (sketch show Tramadol Nights), but you can see why they didn't want to recommission something that was getting them front-page hatred, and I was a bit relieved. A six week panel show takes six weeks to make. Because I was involved from storyboard to editing, Tramadol took over six months, and loads of that was late night and six-day weeks."

What irked most viewers about Boyle was the controversial remarks last year about model Katie Price's disabled son Harvey. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll have no doubt heard of how the star spoke of Harvey - who is blind, severely autistic and has mobility problems. Needless to say all hell broke loose.

Mencap - a charity that campaigns for peolpe with learning disabilities - demanded he be sacked, saying what Frankie had said was 'disgusting' while broadcasting coppers Ofcom descrbed his comments as 'highly offensive'. His comments had in fact been approved for transmission, but it was Boyle's subsequent lack of apology that got the Westminster culture, media and sport select committee fuming. Prompting Channel 4's decision to withdraw the programme, the committee said "When it is found to have gone too far, it is important that Channel 4 makes, and is seen to make, a full apology."

The final decision to axe the show came after even more shit hit the fan when he joked about the McCann family. When asked if he was following the Leveson inquiry into media standards, the comic replied: "Yeah, I saw the McCanns on there and really wanted them to go, "Could you round it up in the next few minutes, mate? We've left the kids over in Starbucks". Just to show they can still have a bit of a laugh," he added.

With a knack for landing himself in the sh*tter, the comic also joked about missing Madeleine McCann in 2010, when he said that part of Gerry McCann must have been 'pleased' his daughter went missing so "he could use her bedroom as a pool room".

Oh Frankie. Too far, tooooooo far. Left with little other choice than to cancel any further airings, a Channel 4 spokesman said Boyle's series were a 'one-off' and no further episodes would be commissioned.

Also cast aside were plans to air what seemed like a really interesting pilot chat show called 'Frankie Boyle's Rehabilitation Programme' wherein Boyle would be 'confronted by celebrities and members of the public who try to change his uncompromising world view in a series of funny, informed debates.'

Speaking last year, Channel 4 head of comedy Shane Allen said of the chat show: "It's very much like Parkinson or Wogan, but with paedo jokes. It's him in a studio, riffing off the audience a bit, with some people challenging what he says."

All is not lost however, for those Frankie Boyle fans of you out there, he has said he will make sure to use his prepared material for the cancelled show elsewhere.

"I put a couple of quite long sketch ideas for the second series into my new book. I wrote them up in a couple of days and went back and tweaked them every time I thought something was funny. It was a lot more fun than filming the f***ing things and getting them past lawyers."

While many a Channel 4 viewer will be happy to see him get his comeuppance, Tommy Sheppard, founder and co-owner of The Stand comedy clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow is one of few people to come out and say that broadcaster have made the wrong decision to axe Boyle.

"It looks as if, for all their supposedly radical, liberal traditions, Channel 4 has knuckled down to the celebrity culture that seems to permeate society at that moment... Late-night programmes and minority channel programmes used to provide a platform for more controversial stuff and it is worrying that the wings of that are being clipped... We need humour which explores the dark side of life, otherwise we reduce comedy to the contents of a Christmas cracker, a horrendous proposition."

What do you think?