David Walliams and Matt Lucas have issued an apology for their past performances in blackfaces in their old series Little Britain and Come Fly With Me.

Last week, the BBC and BritBox made the decision to take down the pair’s old shows from their streaming platforms, a week after Netflix took the same action.

A BBC rep said at the time: “There’s a lot of historical programming available on BBC iPlayer which we regularly review. Times have changed since Little Britain first aired, so it is not currently available on BBC iPlayer.”

While David and Matt have remained silent on the decision for the last few days, they issued near-identical statements apologising for “playing characters of other races” on Saturday night. 

David tweeted: “Matt and I have both spoken publicly in recent years of our regret that we played characters of other races. Once again we want to make it clear that it was wrong & we are very sorry.”

Matt then shared a message with the same sentiment on his own Twitter page. 

In Little Britain, David used blackface to play Desiree DeVere, while Matt also used blackface to play Pastor Jesse King.

The sketch comedy ran for four series in the UK, also landing an American spin-off, Little Britain USA.

Last year, after a long break, Matt and David reunited for a new Little Britain special centred around Brexit on Radio 4, which led to much speculation about a possible new series.

The duo also revisited many of the show’s characters for a sketch as part of the BBC’s Big Night In broadcast back in April.