Female stars call on BBC to remove ‘I want to be raped’ scene from reruns of sitcom ‘Butterflies’

• The classic 1970s sitcom starring Wendy Craig contains the controversial line
• Her character Ria in the episode Breaking The Silence longs for excitement
• But Dame Joan Bakewell led the protests, asking: “Was it ever” a joke?

The BBC has been asked to remove a line from the classic 1970s sitcom “Butterflies” in which star Wendy Craig says: “I want to be raped.”

The episode, entitled ‘Breaking the Silence’, in which Ms Craig’s character Ria longs to escape her monotonous life, was repeated on BBC Four last week but is still available to watch on iPlayer.

Veteran BBC presenter Dame Joan Bakewell led the protests, demanding: “Cut the line! This is not a joke: was it ever meant to be?”

In Carla Lane’s comedy, which ran from 1978 to 1983, Ms. Craig is a bored housewife married to Geoffrey Palmer and has one of her sons with Nicholas Lyndhurst.

In the second episode of the first series, from 1978, she thinks about how to spice up her life, including adultery, shoplifting and running naked through Harrods.

She says: “I’m bored, I’m bored to death. I want to pull life through the mailbox. I want someone to pick me up from the train.”

“I want to run barefoot and without underwear across a field and step on buttercups. I want to be raped!”

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Then she puts her hands over her mouth, shocked by her comments.

The scene probably didn’t cause any controversy when it was first broadcast.

But in the years that followed, attitudes toward the mention of sexual violence on television changed.

Novelist Dame Margaret Drabble also agreed with the deletion of this line: “The reference to rape only gives ammunition to those who still believe that rape is a ridiculous matter.”

Actress Dame Maureen Lipman added: “Given the problems of domestic violence and the abhorrent evils of rape as a weapon of war, I believe this line should be broken.”

“Wendy Craig is such a great actress that you can see in her face what she thinks she longs for. Many women will know exactly what the character means.”

Butterflies is repeated on BBC Four and before last week’s episode a spokesman said the sitcom “contains language which some of you may find offensive”.

On iPlayer, a written warning appears before the episode stating that the episode “may contain offensive language” – a warning that can often refer to politically incorrect language.

On Saturday, the BBC declined to comment on warnings not to mention the rape limit – or on whether it should be removed.

Author Kathy Lette said she is not normally a proponent of trigger warnings, but “in my opinion, this is not a strong enough warning.”

“Ria wants to express that she wants to be desired and devoured.

“The word ‘rape’ at the end of Ria’s plea for fun, for frivolity, makes no sense,” she said.

Ms Craig, 90, was appointed CBE in 2020. Ms Lane died in 2016 aged 87.