Kirsty’s question about which character had first resonated with her as a child, saying: “Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile. I didn’t know Jews like that then sadly, I do now.”
Despite laughter from the audience, the BBC decided to remove the remarks from the broadcast.
I read it as a self-censor by The Beeb. Or, more to the point, they censored Miriam. And maybe it was just the BBC that found it shocking.
[Edit] after rereading the article, it appears that listeners forced this action. Thinking about it more something is off about the presentation of facts in this article. How can the BBC pull something from a broadcast that’s already been broadcast? Maybe the iPlayer version is changed and any rebroadcasts.
The point is that the newspaper — and possibly someone at the BBC although it seems impossible to say what really happened there without looking for other sources, which doesn’t seem likely to be a worthwhile activity — is attempting only to stir up controversy out of nothing at all. It is not “shocking” to point out that the character of Fagin is both vile and Jewish. On the contrary it should not be surprising to anyone who knows anything about it.