When the show first aired in 1997, some of the more controversial sketches were cut on the orders of the then-head of Channel 4 programming Michael Grade, most notably a piece concerning a musical based on the life of and starring the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. The edition of the show in which the sketch would have featured was allegedly broadcast containing a onscreen subliminal message lasting 1/25 of a second that read "Grade is a cunt". The series was repeated in 2001 with the Sutcliffe sketch and some other material shown uncut, and with the subliminal message removed.
