Producer Blasts BBC for Removing Katherine Ryan's Joke About Victoria Beckham and the 'C' Word

The producer of Have I Got News For You has criticised the BBC after the broadcaster removed a joke by Katherine Ryan that compared Victoria Beckham to an extremely offensive swear word. Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of Hat Trick Productions, described the BBC's investigation into the remark as an unnecessary use of licence-fee money.

In an episode hosted by Ryan that was broadcast on 7 November 2025, the programme discussed an alleged email from David Beckham in which he used the c-word while referring to the honours committee after previously being passed over for a knighthood. Ryan later made a joke linking the same word to Victoria Beckham.

BBC Rules Against Victoria Beckham Remark

Two viewers complained about the line, describing it as 'gratuitously offensive.' The BBC's Executive Complaints Unit later upheld their complaints and concluded that, although the programme had editorial grounds for discussing the swear word in connection with David Beckham, there was no comparable justification for Ryan's reference to Victoria Beckham.

The ECU said the relevant BBC editorial rules do not require programmes to avoid causing offence altogether. However, it said potentially offensive material must have a clear editorial justification. Following the ruling, the broadcaster edited the episode and replaced the version available on BBC iPlayer so that Ryan's remark was removed.

Jimmy Mulville Pushes Back

Mulville has strongly disputed the BBC's handling of the complaint. According to Deadline and Radio Times, Mulville characterised the investigation as costly and unnecessary, saying that the broadcaster had spent a significant period examining a joke whose meaning, in his view, had been misunderstood.

'Katherine and Victoria exchanged messages on Instagram about the remark, which Katherine put into its intended context,' Mulville said, explaining that the ECU misunderstood Ryan's joke. 'In contemporary queer and ballroom culture, the word has been reclaimed. It is used to describe someone who looks extremely confident, impeccably styled, fierce, or authentically and powerfully feminine. Katherine Ryan is a woman who would not disparage another woman in that way,' he added per Deadline.

'The fact the two members of a 6 million audience took offence, which then triggered a year-long investigation by the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit, whom we've never met and sounds like something out of Kafka, is a total waste of the licence fee and is another example of the BBC's paranoia about causing offence. HIGNFY is set up to be comically and intentionally offensive,' the producer continued. 'My own definition of a c**t is someone who spends all day looking for problems that don't exist.'

Katherine Ryan Responds

Ryan has addressed the controversy publicly. In an Instagram post, the comedian joked that she sometimes loses perspective about the kind of relationship she has with celebrities after explaining that that particular day had not been the easiest for her as a new mother.

'At that time, though there is no defence, I have to tell you I was suffering from a condition called matrescence. I was in that building with a 10-day-old baby. I was a woman going to work but I did call another woman a c**t. Sometimes I forget that celebrities are not my friends,' Ryan said in the Instagram post.

Ryan also emphasised that the incident had been simply a joke, but the BBC had described it as a slur 'This was described by the BBC as a slur, as though c**nts are part of a protected group. Now that section's been taken off iPlayer so the incident only exists in printed media and then you lose the context.'

The original broadcast reportedly prompted a mixture of laughter and surprise from the studio audience. Fellow panellist Maisie Adam reacted to Ryan's comment during the programme, while Ryan subsequently indicated that she 'loved' Victoria Beckham. 'On the day...if you watched, it was clearly a joke and the whole audience went 'huh' and I said, 'whoah I love her,'' she said.