Comedian Jack Dee allegedly threatened to quit the BBC's long-running comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue after he was told to cut out crude jokes, according to regular panellist Tim Brooke-Taylor.
Brooke-Taylor, who appears alongside Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer in the show chaired by Dee, labelled BBC executives pathetic for taking offence at the show's innuendos.
The row is reported to have begun after a listener complained that one of its best-known gags – about a fictional scorekeeper known as "the lovely Samantha" – who was introduced in 1985 by the original chair, Humphrey Lyttelton – was demeaning to women.
Dee's agent denied the comedian had threatened to resign.
Brooke-Taylor, 73, told Cotswold Life magazine: "We've had terrible trouble with the BBC about the show. Someone complained about Samantha – that it was being rude to women – and told us we had to be careful about that. The writer who writes Jack Dee's links, said: 'Well, in that case I'm leaving', and Jack said: 'Well, I'm leaving, too'. It's just so pathetic, so many things are double entendre that kids don't realise what we're on about."
Lyttelton gave "Samantha" an empty chair so she could sit at his side during recording sessions in front of an audience. She became a target for double entendres and innuendos – a tradition Dee has maintained since taking over the show in 2009 after Lyttleton's death.
Brooke-Taylor also claimed the BBC was unhappy about the panel doing non-broadcast live shows around the country. "The BBC has tried to stop us doing it – but don't get me going on the BBC."
The BBC said it had received four complaints about "Samantha" since the start of 2013. "We have regular discussions with production teams and contributors to all long-running Radio 4 programmes on how we can best keep the much-loved shows clever, relevant and fresh to listeners," a spokesman said.
Jack Dee's agent said: "There had been a discussion about some of the show's more risqué content following a particular complaint, but this certainly didn't result in Jack threatening to resign. The discussion was completely amicable and the Clue team felt supported by the BBC as a result."
The radio show, which regularly attracts 2.5 million listeners, has won prizes at the British Comedy Awards and the Sony Radio Awards. It features instantly recognisable rounds such as One Song to the Tune of Another and Mornington Crescent. A new series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue begins on 30 June.
