Listener complained over Alexei Sayle's Radio 4 routine

A Radio 4 listener complained that an Alexei Sayle routine that included a joke about Rod Hull and Emu being members of the Nazi SS was not historically accurate.

The BBC’s editorial complaints unit investigated the comedian’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar programme following the complaint that it had broken the broadcaster’s rules on accuracy.

They today ruled that the programme, which aired on March 5, did not breach editorial standards.

Early in the episode, Sayle adopted a silly high-pitched voice and pretended to be BBC director-general Tim Davie.

In that guise, he squeaked: ‘People say to me, Alexei should be less controversial, less inflammatory, less aggressive, but I say, no, you go girl.  You carry on.  Say what you like. 

‘It doesn't matter if some of the things you say might not be entirely factually correct.  Some of the things you say might be disturbingly partisan or just deranged, or extremely unpleasant, but the country desperately needs you to say these things…’

In today’s ruling, the editorial complaints unit said: ‘This would have led listeners in general to expect something less than strict accuracy in what followed.’

Later in the programme, Sayle spoke about the Galicia Division of the SS, which was largely comprised of Ukrainian volunteers. 

He said: ‘After the war, 8,000 members of the Galicia Division, because they were ferociously right wing and would be useful to MI6, were allowed secretly to come to Britain where they were given homes, incomes, and new identities.

‘The comedy magician Tommy Cooper was in the Galicia Division, Cilla Black was another one, and both Rod Hull and Emu.’

The listener complained the programme contained inaccuracies about Ukrainian history, particularly in relation to the role of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) in the Second World War.

Watchdogs said it was ‘unlikely’ that listeners would have taken Mr Sayle to have been speaking literally when he made his comments ‘particularly as he went on to identify Tommy Cooper, Cilla Black and both Rod Hull and Emu as being among their number.  Accordingly, the ECU found no departure from the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.’

Home Office papers reveal how 7,100 Ukrainian men from the notorious division  were allowed to settle in Britain in 1947 to protect them from persecution in Stalinist-controlled Ukraine.  

A 2001 ITV documentary claimed that their wartime activities were not properly investigated, although 32 members were said to have been denied entry because of their war record.

The division is hailed by the far-right in Ukraine, although president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned a march that praised them and its  insignia is widely classified as a  hate symbol.

Published: 8 May 2025