THE JAM - THATCHER BANNED FROM ONE SHOW AFTER 'GOLLIWOG' REMARK

THATCHER BANNED FROM ONE SHOW AFTER 'GOLLIWOG' REMARK

Carol Thatcher, the daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, has been banned from The One Show after referring to a tennis player as a "golliwog".

The 55-year-old 'roving reporter' will no longer work on the popular BBC1 programme after she made the alleged comment in reference to a male competitor in the Australian Open.

However, she will not be banned from the BBC as a whole.

It is thought the corporation hoped Thatcher would make an unconditional apology over the remark but she declined to do so, with her spokesman stressing her comment was "meant as a joke".

A former winner of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, Thatcher had been speaking in the green room after Thursday night's broadcast of The One Show with presenter Adrian Chiles and other members of the production team.

The Times newspaper quoted a BBC source as saying Chiles was "very shocked" by Thatcher's remark while others in the room are said to have told her they considered the comment offensive.

A spokesman for Thatcher said that the comment had been "an off-the-cuff remark made in jest'.

He told the newspaper: "Carol never intended any racist comment. She made a light aside about this tennis player and his similarity to the golliwog on the jam pot when she was growing up.

"There's no way, obviously, that she would condone any racist comment - we would refute that entirely. It would not be in her nature to do anything like that."

Neither the BBC nor representatives for Thatcher and Chiles were prepared to name the tennis player in discussion in the backstage conversation.