Coronation Street Has Been Hit With It's Second Race Scandal As Investigation Is Confirm For 'Racist' Scene
- Publish Date
- Tuesday, 27 September 2016, 12:20PM
Coronation Street is facing an investigation by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom after a 'racial slur' in a recent episode featuring actress Catherine Tyldesley's character.
And it's the second blow for the ITV show this week, as it comes after it was revealed actor Marc Anwar's racist Twitter abuse is being investigated by police.
The soap was accused of racism for a comment Catherine's character Eva Price made about her hair in a recent episode.
The episode, broadcast in the UK in August, saw Eva Price visit Audrey's hair salon, where she remarked: "I have more roots than Kunta Kinte.
"No idea who that is, by the way, just something my mum used to say."
Kunta Kinte was a character from the novel Roots: The Saga Of An American Family, which was adapted into a hit TV miniseries.
Based on a real-life ancestor of author Alex Haley, it tells the story of a young man taken from Gambia and sold as a slave.
The comments, which led Coronation Street to "apologise if this dialogue has caused offence", sparked 472 complaints to media watchdog Ofcom.
An Ofcom spokesman said: "We're investigating whether a comment made by a character in Coronation Street was offensive and breached generally accepted standards."
Malachi Kirby as Kunta Kinte in Roots
A Corrie spokesperson told Mirror Online: "We will be responding to the regulator in due course."
And it's a fresh blow for Corrie bosses, as actor Marc Anwar's racist Twitter abuse is also being investigated by police this week.
As the Sunday Mirror exclusively revealed, the Pakistan-born actor was sacked by the soap after an Âastonishing racist attack on Indian people.
NZME.
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