A RADIO comedy show containing a joke about Rolf Harris drawing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad has been pulled by the BBC because it was deemed too controversial.

The Franz Kafka Big Band, a comedy series commissioned for BBC Radio Scotland, has been withdrawn from the schedule after editors thought that jokes about Israel and Palestine and a sketch in which a cow flies into the World Trade Centre were inappropriate.

The BBC had billed the group’s second series as “sure to surprise even the most unshockable”, but said yesterday that it had asked the writers to rewrite some sketches. “The programme has been postponed because the new material is bold and requires some fine-tuning,” a spokesman said.

The decision coincided with the BBC’s change of heart about an episode of Time Trumpet, a satirical show written by Armando Iannucci, which was withdrawn last week after MPs said that it was in poor taste.

The episode, which will be broadcast tonight, features a skit depicting the first “terrorism awards”. Roly Keating, controller of BBC Two, personally approved an edited version of the programme. Footage of terrorists crashing a plane into Parliament was uncensored, but a scene showing Tony Blair being assassinated in his bed has been cut.

Nick Low, executive producer for The Franz Kafka Big Band, said that his show would require substantial changes. “We are disappointed because we have been working on this for eight months and now I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day. The Franz Kafka Big Band has always been about not compromising what it does. The BBC has been very supportive, it is just whether we can thrash things out and whether a compromise can be made. I don’t think we are talking fine-tuning; there are major changes that would need to be done.”

One controversial segment is called Rolf’s Blasphemous Cartoon Time, featuring Rolf Harris drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and Buddha. Another sketch has a voiceover for a famine appeal while the person is eating. There is also sexual content.

Colin Edwards, the show’s writer and producer, said that the BBC had a problem mainly with the show’s political content. “Anything to do with Israel just now is controversial and there are a couple of sketches that tried to say something about Palestine. I think one problem is that the way the show is produced means it can sound very realistic because of the post-production work and sound effects, so something that seems relatively innocuous on paper goes from being relatively funny to something quite potent.

“It’s frustrating, but the BBC has given us a lot of freedom. So, although we have to go back to them, it’s just a case of coming to a common ground.”

The five-part series was to be broadcast nightly from August 28. The BBC hopes to broadcast a rewritten version of the show “in the next few weeks”.