Noble's dossier gags dropped

Ross Noble has become the latest victim of BBC sensitivity about upsetting the government - at least according to one newspaper.

Noble's one-man show Unrealtime is to be broadcast on BBC2 later this month - but a routine about the government 's 'dodgy dossier' on Iraq has not made the final cut.

In it, Noble adopts a Barry White accent to joke about Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell 'sexing up' intelligence about Saddam's weapons.

The stoutly anti-BBC Daily Telegraph has indirectly accused the corporation of 'cold feet' for dropping the piece - a day after it cut a line from the Radio 4 sitcom Absolute Power branding Blair a liar.

However, the BBC says they made no requests to cut Noble's show, a claim confirmed by the independent company editing the two-hour live show into a 59-minute broadcast.

In fact, a source close to Noble - currently touring his famously off-the-cuff show in Australia, said: "We can't even recall if any dossier-based stuff was performed on the night of recording

"Certainly nothing was left out at their request, in fact we can't believe some of the stuff they let us keep in."

But fans will get a chance to see some of the material the BBC doesn't show on February 21 when Noble releases a 100-minute DVD of the show later this year.

Published: 4 Feb 2004