BBC apologises for new racial faux pas

London, July 5 (ANI): The producers of BBC's The One Show have apologised for a new racial faux pas, which comes just five months after the channel sacked Carol Thatcher for comparing a tennis player to a 'golliwog' on the show.Some viewers of the BBC One programme complained after actor Martin Jarvis complimented a fellow guest, Fatima Barkatullah, who was wearing a niqab, a face veil in which only her eyes could be seen.

"You have wonderful and lovely eyes," the Telegraph quoted Jarvis, as telling Barkatullah after she had explained during a discussion about Muslim women's dress that wearing niqab or burka was partly intended to discourage unwanted attention from men. "The producers were apologising in the green room afterwards. But I knew he meant it in good spirits. Martin said afterwards that he was just saying what the whole nation was thinking. I think some people were offended on my behalf," Barkatullah said.

"My husband met him in the green room afterwards and told him he wasn't going to ask him to step outside," she added.

In February, Carol Thatcher was banned from The One Show after being reported for referring to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the French tennis player, as a "golliwog."

The daughter of former British prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made the remark during an off-camera conversation with the presenter Adrian Chiles, who was described as "shocked."

Although the conversation took place in the green room and not on air, her remark was heard by several members of the production team, as well as Chiles. (ANI)