Gavin & Stacey fans criticise Christmas Special for airing uncensored lyric from 'Fairytale of New York' - digitalspy.com

Fans have criticised the recent Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special for including an uncensored lyric from The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’.

A scene in the episode, which aired last night (December 25) on BBC One, showed Bryn (Rob Brydon) and Nessa (Ruth Jones) singing the festive song during a karaoke stint at The Dolphin.

However, when it came to the controversial line that includes the slur 'f****t', the lyric was aired uncensored, leading many viewers to take to Twitter to express their disappointment in the decision.

BBC

"I love Gavin and Stacey, but including the ‘f****t’ line in the Fairytale of New York singalong is careless and a real missed opportunity," wrote one user. "Imagine if Nessa had simply said ‘Oh! Bryn! To be honest, at the end of the day like, I feels uncomfortable using that word in 2019.'"

"Kirsty MacColl, singer of Fairytale in New York, changed the 'f****t' line when she appeared on Top of the Pops to ‘You scumbag, you maggot, you’re cheap and your haggard’, and these lyrics are used by later covers," said another. "If she could do it, why couldn't the most watched Xmas show?"

You can check out more reactions to the scene below:

Before the episode dropped, a BBC spokesperson defended the decision to air the uncensored version of the song.

"'Fairytale of New York' is a very popular, much-loved Christmas song played widely throughout the festive season, and the lyrics are well-established with the audience," they told Metro.

The song itself was written by Shane McGowan and his bandmate Jem Finer back in 1987, with criticism over the use of the word coming up year after year.

Following calls to have the song censored during radio airplay, McGowan released a statement last year explaining why he included the word in the song.

"The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character," he told The Tonight Show.

Roberto RicciutiGetty Images

"She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person. She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate.

"Her dialogue is accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable.”

He added: “Sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.

"If people don't understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word but I don't want to get into an argument."

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Gavin & Stacey fans criticise Christmas Special for airing uncensored lyric from 'Fairytale of New York' - digitalspy.com
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