Millie Bobby Brown shouldn’t accept Matt Lucas’s apology

Millie Bobby Brown has had enough of bodyshamers and started calling them out. One name on her list? Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame.

In an impassioned Instagram video message released today, Brown spoke of her fury at journalists who were “so desperate to tear young women down.” She talked about articles and incidents that had particularly upset her. One article Brown mentioned, from right-wing tabloid The Daily Mail, was “Little Britain’s Matt Lucas takes savage swipe at Millie Bobby Brown’s new ‘mommy makeover look,” written by Bethan Edwards. Brown said it was “amplifying an insult rather than questioning why a grown man is mocking a young woman’s appearance” before adding, “This isn’t journalism. This is bullying.”

The article explains that the Doctor Who actor encountered a picture of Brown in a pink hoodie and big hoop earrings and decided to compare her to one of his Little Britain characters, Vicky Pollard. Vicky, played by Lucas, was a “gobby” working-class teenager whose catchphrase was “no but no but yeah.” Lucas posted that catchphrase as a response to pics of Brown in her pink outfit.

Now, he’s stricken that Brown took offense. But it’s hard to see why she wouldn’t. Vicky Pollard was an obnoxious character and intended to be a caricature, yet Lucas saw fit to compare Brown to her.

Lucas has apologized to Millie Bobby Brown

Lucas posted an apology on his own Instagram account. “Dear Millie, I just saw your post and wanted to respond, and provide some context,” he wrote. “Nearly 25 years ago I co-wrote and appeared in a sketch show called Little Britain. There was a character in it called Vicky Pollard, who had blonde hair and always wore a pink top, and in the photo you had blonde hair and wore a pink top so I pointed out the similarity by posting one of her catchphrases.”

He continued, “I thought you looked terrific and I was mortified when the press wrote that I ‘slammed’ you, firstly because that’s not my style, and secondly because I think you’re brilliant.”

Except… that is his style. It has always been. Matt Lucas and his comedy partner David Walliams made Little Britain to hurt and insult people. The character of Vicky was a slam on working-class people; other characters were designed to make fun of disabled people or transgender people. Then, there was the blackface. In Little Britain and its sequel show, Come Fly With Me, Lucas and Walliams played characters in blackface and yellowface, presenting Black and Asian people as caricatures. One of Lucas’ characters was a “Thai bride” named “Ting Tong” who spoke in an offensive accent.

I was a teenager at the height of Little Britain, and you couldn’t escape it. The mockery and ugliness promoted by Lucas and Walliams easily leaked into everyday life, with members of minority groups becoming targets of “funny, harmless” bullying.

Even Lucas admitted in 2017 that Little Britain went too far. “If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters. Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now,” he told the Big Issue. Except, clearly he’s not all that ashamed of it if he’s bringing Vicky Pollard out in 2025 to give an unsolicited opinion on a woman’s looks?

Lucas and Little Britain helped make Britain a meaner place. Brown was right to call him out.