Was it even funny then? It certainly isn’t now. The inherent racism in the Manuel character is now just cringeworthy. TV and humour are by nature ephemeral. TV comedy, doubly so.

Specific offensive words used to just get beeped. That’s one answer. Without knowing the specifics of how the BBC is presenting this content, it should be relegated to the archive and disclaimed, and forgotten. Performative “cancelling” often has an unintended Streisand Effect.