Industry | 2009.10.05
Strictly Come Dancing's BBC race row
BBC yet to explain why Anton du Beke has not been sacked for a similar offence to Carol Thatcher\'s earlier this year
The BBC has received 63 complaints after it emerged Strictly Come Dancing star Anton Du Beke called his dance partner Laila Rouass a "Paki" .
The dancer issued an apology after the News of the World revealed he had used the offensive term to describe the actor Laila Rouass, his partner on the BBC1 show.
Du Beke reportedly said Rouass, who is mixed race, "looked like a Paki" after she turned up to a rehearsal with a spray tan. Rouass is said to have stormed out of the rehearsal two weeks ago.
A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC does not condone offensive language in the workplace. Anton Du Beke has apologised to Laila, who has accepted his apology."
The incident has reignited the debate over the firing of Carol Thatcher from BBC1\'s The One Show after she called a tennis player a "golliwog".
Like Du Beke, she made the comments off-air, but in The One Show\'s green room in front of some of the show\'s guests and staff.
The corporation has not yet explained why Carol Thatcher was fired and Du Beke has not been dismissed.
I\'m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here winner Thatcher wrote a letter to the BBC apologising for her remarks.
But according to sources it was not considered by executives to be enough and she was dismissed.
A friend of Thatcher\'s said: "It seems there is one rule for one presenter and another for another depending on whether or not you\'re expendable for if they need you to present other shows, like Anton Du Beke does."
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