Frank Skinner has expressed his shame over his treatment of former footballer Jason Lee on the BBC show Fantasy Football League in the nineties.
The comic fronted the series alongside his then comedy partner David Baddiel, which would see them ridiculing footballers of the time.
Much of their material was aimed at the Black Nottingham Forest player, with David mocking his playing ability and his hairstyle. At one point David wore blackface with a pineapple on his head.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Frank spoke of his regret about the skits, describing it as a “bullying campaign”.
“I spoke to Dave about it recently, from a how-the-fuck-did-that-ever-happen point of view,” Frank told the newspaper.
“I still don’t know how it happened. I know why we took the piss out of him, because I’d watched him on Match of the Day missing several goals, so a sketch about him being unable to put a piece of paper into a bin worked.
“But when Dave walked out from makeup [in blackface] that night, I still don’t know why one or both of us… or someone there didn’t say what the fuck is happening?”
He added: “I can’t look back on it now without seeing it as bullying. There was a big response to it. People started to send in loads of pictures of pineapples, and so it ran and ran and ran. Looking back, it was a bullying campaign. And it’s awful. And yeah, I’m ashamed of it.
“And we’ve said that to each other without any Guardian journalist to impress. It wouldn’t be too much to say we’re both deeply ashamed.”
The comedian went on to explain why he’d never done a “big public apology” because it “doesn’t sit well” with him.
“They look a bit like union card apologies: ‘I just need to keep working; I’ll apologise for anything, just let me keep working.’ I didn’t want to be part of that,” he said.
David Baddiel has apologised on social media, admitting the sketches were racist. But Jason has called out both David and Frank for never apologising to him personally.
“Baddiel and Skinner, did they realise the impact of what they were saying, how it affected so many people?” Jason told PA in 2020.
“Especially a hairstyle, you’re talking about ethnicity, a lot of black people would wear dreadlocks and feel deeply offended by someone who’s getting mocked for a similar hairstyle. The implications were far wider, and it wouldn’t happen today.”
He continued: “I never received an apology from Baddiel and Skinner.
“It’s never too late. I think that would be good for maybe my children to hear that, and it would show them that in today’s day and age people maybe are more remorseful, and people are having to look at how they act.”
