A show offering an audience the chance to vote on whether to destroy art by Adolf Hitler has been called “deeply inappropriate” and accused of “trivialising the horrors of Nazism”.
The Channel 4 entertainment show, Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, features “problematic art” and offers a live studio audience the chance to decide if it is kept, or destroyed by various means.
If the audience vote to destroy Hitler’s painting, it will be shredded.
Previously publicised under its working title Art Trouble, the show has been described by Channel 4 as “a unique television experiment” which will explore cancel culture and whether we can ethically separate art from the artist.
Responding to publicity around the show, Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, told Sky News: “There is nothing entertaining or laughable about Hitler or the murder of six million Jews, and the persecution of millions more.
“This episode of the television series, Art Trouble [the working title of Jimmy Carr Destroys Art], is making Hitler a topic of light entertainment – this is deeply inappropriate, and at a time of increasing Holocaust distortion, dangerously trivialising.
“The question of how far art can be linked to its creators is an important one, but this programme is simply a stunt for shock value, and cannot excuse the trivialisation of the horrors of Nazism.”
More on Channel 4
Related Topics:
The charity also highlighted the choice of Carr as a host, after the comedian caused controversy earlier this year after using the death of Gypsy people during the Holocaust as a punchline for one of the jokes in his Netflix special, His Dark Material.
Ms Marks-Woldman said: “Choosing Jimmy Carr to front this episode is deliberately provocative and inflammatory given his history of using the murder of Roma and Sinti people by the Nazis and their collaborators for comedic gain.”
Advertisement
Away from accusations of trivialising Nazism, others have highlighted the folly of destroying valuable work at a time when the cost of living crisis is hitting families across Britain.
Channel 4, known for its disruptive and provocative programming, said the show is “a television first” asking members of the public “where people draw the line today between artistic expression, controversy and harm”.
It will air as part of the channel’s Truth and Dare season.
In response to criticism around the show, Channel 4 said in a statement: “Jimmy Carr Destroys Art is a thoughtful and nuanced exploration of the limits of free expression in art, and whether work by morally despicable artists still deserves to be seen.
“It speaks directly to the current debate around cancel culture and is in a long tradition of Channel 4 programming that seeks to engage a broad audience with the biggest and thorniest ethical and cultural questions.”
Other artists featured on the show include Pablo Picasso, convicted paedophile Rolf Harris and sexual abuser Eric Gill.
According to a Channel 4 description, it will also feature surprises, stunts and public experiments conducted by well-known artists across the country.
She told Sky News how returning feels like the society has “made good on something that was wrong”.
Image: Sophie Lloyd, who tricked the Magic Circle into believing she was a man
How did she infiltrate that exclusive group that nowadays counts the likes of David Copperfield and Dynamo as members?
In March of that year, she took her entry exam posing as a teenage boy, creating an alter-ego called Raymond Lloyd.
“I’d played a boy before,” she explained, but “it took months of preparation” to secretly infiltrate the Circle’s ranks half a year before it would officially vote to let women in.
More from Ents & Arts
“Really, going back 30 years, men’s clubs were like, you know, just something you accepted.”
The men-only rule had been in place since the Circle was formed in 1905. The thinking behind it being that women just couldn’t keep secrets.
Aware of the frustration of female magicians at the time, Lloyd felt she was up for the challenge of proving women could be as good at magic as the men.
The idea was, in fact, born out of a double act, thought up by a successful magician called Jenny Winstanley who’d wanted to join herself but wasn’t allowed.
She recognised the hoax would probably only work with a much younger woman posing as a teenage boy, and met Lloyd through an acting class.
Image: Sophie Lloyd as teenage magician Raymond Lloyd. Pic: Sophie Lloyd
Lloyd said: “We had to have a wig made… the main thing was my face, I had plumpers made on a brace to bring his jawline down.”
To hide her feminine hands, she did the magic in gloves, which she says “was so hard to do, especially sleight of hand.”
The biggest test came when she was invited for a drink with her examiner, where she had to fake having laryngitis.
“After the exam, which was 20 minutes, he invited Jenny and I – she played my manager – and I sat there for one hour and three quarters and had to say ‘sorry, I’ve got a bad voice’.”
Raymond Lloyd passed the test, and his membership certificate was sent through to Sophie.
Then, in October of the same year, when whispers started circulating that the society was going to open its membership to both sexes, she and Jenny decided to reveal all. It didn’t go down well.
Rather than praise her performance, members were incandescent about the deception and, somewhat ironically, Raymond Lloyd was kicked out just before women members were let in.
Lloyd said: “We got a letter… Jenny was hurt… she was snubbed by people she actually knew, that was hurtful. However, things have really changed now…”
Three decades later the Magic Circle put out a nationwide appeal stating they wanted to apologise and Lloyd was recently tracked down in Spain.
While Jenny Winstanley died 20 years ago in a car crash, as well as Sophie receiving her certificate on Thursday, her mentor’s contribution to magic is being recognised at the special show that’s being held in both their honour at the Magic Circle.
Lloyd says: “Jenny was a wonderful, passionate person. She would have loved to be here. It’s for her really.”
Counter terror police are assessing a video reported to be from a concert by Irish rappers Kneecap.
A social media clip of the hip hop trio on stage appeared to show one member of the group shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
The footage was posted online by Danny Morris from the Jewish security charity, the Community Security Trust.
He said it was from a gig last November at London’s Kentish Town Forum.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We have been made aware of the video and it has been referred to the counter terrorism internet referral unit for assessment and to determine whether any further police investigation may be required.”
Hamas and Hezbollah are both proscribed as terrorist groups in the UK. Under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, it is an offence to express “an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation”.
Sky News has contacted Kneecap’s management for comment.
It comes after TV personality Sharon Osbourne called for Kneecap’s US work visas to be revoked after accusing them of making “aggressive political statements” including “projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech” at Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
The retrial of Harvey Weinstein has begun in New York – with a prosecutor telling the court the former Hollywood mogul used “dream opportunities as weapons” to prey on the three women accusing him of sexual abuse.
Weinstein, who is now 73, is charged with raping one woman and forcing oral sex on two others. He has strenuously denied the allegations.
Following a lengthy jury selection process due to the high-profile nature of the retrial, the prosecution has now opened its case at the same courthouse in Manhattan.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:48
Why is Weinstein getting a retrial?
Attorney Shannon Lucey told the court the Oscar-winning producer and studio boss used “dream opportunities as weapons” against the female accusers.
“The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” she said.
Weinstein had “enormous control over those working in TV and film because he decided who was in and who was out,” the court heard. “He had all the power. They had none.”
Dressed in a dark suit and navy tie, Weinstein listened to the prosecution’s statement after arriving in court in a wheelchair, as he has done for his recent appearances.
His lawyers are expected to outline their case later on Wednesday.
Image: Steven Hirsch/ New York Post via AP/ pool
The opening statements got under way after the last jurors were finally picked on Tuesday, more than a week after the selection process began.
Prospective jurors were questioned about their backgrounds, life experiences and various other points that could potentially impact their ability to be fair and impartial about a case that has been so highly publicised. They have also been asked privately about their knowledge of the case and opinions on Weinstein.
Seven men and five women have been chosen to hear the trial.
Why is there a retrial?
In 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison after being found guilty of charges of sexual assault in 2006 and rape in 2013, relating to two women.
But in April 2024, New York’s highest court overturned the convictions due to concerns of prejudicial testimony and that the judge in the original trial had made improper rulings.
Prosecutors announced a retrial last year and a separate charge concerning a third woman, who was not part of the original trial, has since been added to the case. She alleges the producer forced oral sex on her at a hotel in 2006.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.
Weinstein was also sentenced in February 2023 after being convicted of rape during a separate trial in LA – which means that even if the retrial ends in not guilty verdicts on all three counts, he will remain behind bars.