BBC announces withdrawal of controversial cartoon series 'Popetown'

Published: 2004-09-27

LONDON (CNS) -- A controversial cartoon program that lampooned the papacy has been canceled by the British Broadcasting Corp. following months of protests by British Catholics. The BBC announced Sept. 23 that it would not broadcast the cartoon series "Popetown." The show was said to feature the pope as a childish retiree whose every fickle whim must be indulged. Thousands of Catholics had written the BBC in protest. In announcing the decision to cancel the show, Stuart Murphy, controller of BBC Three, said, "There is a fine judgment line in comedy between scurrilously funny and the offensive. I knew when we developed the series that there was risk involved, but unfortunately, once we saw the finished series, it became clear that the program fell on the wrong side of that line," he said.

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