Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Travis dropped from Top of the Pops repeats

The BBC will not show repeats of Top of the Pops featuring former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis, who was found guilty of indecent assault last month.
The BBC pulled episodes hosted by Travis from its schedule of weekly repeats on BBC Four following the broadcaster's arrest in November 2012.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman confirmed "the BBC will not show Top of the Pops repeats fronted by Dave Lee Travis".

Travis was given a three-month suspended sentence last month.

The spokeswoman added: "We will consider any other archive appearances on a case by case basis."

It follows the BBC's decision to allow Jonathan King to appear in a BBC Two documentary about Genesis last week.

King was convicted of child sex offences in 2001. He was sentenced for seven years and released from prison in 2005.

The BBC said his inclusion in the film, Genesis Together and Apart, reflected the "significant role" King played in the history of Genesis, whom he discovered.

His appearance has led to 20 complaints to the BBC, while broadcasting regulator Ofcom is assessing three complaints.

Edited out

In September, Travis was convicted of indecently assaulting a researcher working on TV's Mrs Merton Show in 1995. He was acquitted of 14 further charges during a trial and a later retrial.

The 69-year-old, who was tried under his real name David Griffin, appeared on Radio 1 for more than 25 years until 1993 and was a regular host of Top of the Pops.

Last year, the BBC apologised for airing an excerpt from a 1971 edition of Top of the Pops in which disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile was briefly shown.

Programmes featuring Savile were supposed to have been pulled following revelations of his history of abuse, while archive footage showing convicted sex offender Gary Glitter has also been removed from editions of the show.

King's appearance in a 2011 re-run of Top of the Tops was edited out, prompting him to complain to the BBC.

He called it a "Stalinist revision of history" and was assured by the then BBC director general Mark Thompson that this would not happen again.

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