Matt Lucas and David Walliams confirm new series of Little Britain

'The show will be different in many ways'

The BBC sketch show initially ran between 2003 and 2006, following the peculiar and controversial lives of a number of different British characters.

Little Britain made household names of Lucas and Walliams and resulted in books, talking dolls, and a stage show. Recently, however, the show has faced a lot of backlash due to its offensive humour such as blackface, fat-shaming, and racial stereotyping.

In the original series, Walliams and Lucas played every character, but in the upcoming reboot, they'll be joined by a number of other actors.

Confirming its return, Matt Lucas told The Sun: “The show will be different in many ways.

“We are talking about how we can have diverse talent on screen and in the writers’ room and conceive it as something which is just not about me and David playing absolutely everyone.

“That is something we should have done but didn’t do back then.

“But we were making the show at the same time as many other people who were doing what we were doing and had that approach.”

Lucas added: “Because some people are upset about what we do, or what we have done, out of respect to those people I don’t talk about it publicly because I don’t want to cause further upset to people who were upset.

“I totally accept there are different opinions. “I accept people feel very differently from others and I respect everyone’s opinion from wherever they come from on this subject. I see things differently now to how we did.

“Things have changed and I respect that.”

Related links:

• Little Britain to return to terrestrial TV for first time in 18 years
• Ofcom study deems famous Little Britain sketch ‘racist and outdated’
• Little Britain removes controversial David Walliams character from episodes