In Little Britain, its usually “the computer says no”. In Australia it’s regional television operators NBN and WIN, owned by the mega-rich Gordon family, saying “no” to its creators. Its stations won’t show new series Come Fly With Me, from Little Britain pair Matt Lucas and David Walliams after deciding it wasn’t appropriate television for its audience.

It’s actually even odder than reported. WIN controls the Nine Network stations in Adelaide and Perth; Come Fly With Me is down to be broadcast at 8pm. The Nine Network actually controls NBN. So WIN and Nine reckon a program that is “safe” to be shown to viewers of their stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, is unsafe to be seen elsewhere, even though viewers with the right aerials in Wollongong and Newcastle should be able to see it from TCN Nine in Sydney, while viewers on the Gold Coast watching the NBN station can change to BTQ9 from Brisbane and watch.

The involvement of Nine is more remarkable: having ordered up the series for a lot of money, it now thinks that it is unsuitable for the non-metro areas of the country. No real explanation, just the assumption that the program will be inappropriate for those areas. And to think the ABC broadcast the first episode of Angry Boys across the nation last Wednesday (which was probably far more offensive to people in rural areas) with nary a moan.