BBC and Hasbro under fire for 'whiting up' Night Garden doll

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 05-Jan-09, 09:00

LONDON - The BBC has agreed to replace a toy doll of a character from hit children's TV series 'In the Night Garden' after it was attacked for making the toy more light skinned than the on-screen version.

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Hasbro, the toy's manufacturer, has been asked to create a new version of the character Upsy Daisy with darker skin to avoid a race row.

'In the Night Garden', a children's show about a group of friends who live in a magical garden produced by the team behind 'Teletubbies', has become Britain's most popular children's TV franchise, earning £18m in the past year.

Parents complained after realising the Upsy Daisy doll was much whiter than its on-screen version with some accusing the BBC of racism and changing the doll's skin colour to make more profit.

The BBC has denied that the toy's skin was changed for commercial reasons claiming that the lighter-skinned Upsy Daisy matched an animated version of the character which runs at the end of the show.

Ragdoll productions, the maker of 'In the Night Garden', said that the character "is not intended to represent a specific race or culture".

Following the complaints BBC Worldwide commissioned a survey to gauge public opinion and found that a number of people wanted the Upsy Daisy doll to have a darker face colour to more closely match how she appears in the live-action element of the TV show.

Hasbro has been asked to phase out the existing doll and a replacement is expected in shops by Easter.