The Black and White Minstrel Show, the popular 'blackface' song and dance extravaganza broadcast on BBC television for 20 years, is to astound viewers once more, by making a comeback to the small screen this spring.
The show, which was axed in 1978 due to changing attitudes to racial stereotyping, initially continued to tour at theatres until 1989, but, since then, all memories of it had been buried at the bottom of a mineshaft in a place far blacker than anything make-up artists could muster for the male performers.
Now, however, with the pendulum of public opinion having swung back towards toleration of 'all kinds of thinking', the broadcaster has decided to 'dust-off' its archive film, and to give re-runs to the shows that had audiences chuckling aplenty in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
A new series is also in production.
Lenny Henry, the Black Country comedian who got his 'big break' into showbusiness by appearing in the show in 1975, now regrets having done so. It didn't do his bank balance any harm, though.
