ITV Cut Tim Minchin’s Jesus Song From Jonathan Ross Show (And We’re Surprised?)

Tim Minchin has had a pop at ITV after his live performance of satirical Christmas song WoodyAllenJesus was cut from last night's Jonathan Ross show. For the first time in his life, he can feel like he's some kind of modern day Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks got a routine kicked off Letterman. Don't you pillocks know anything?

Anyway, Minchin claims that the broadcaster's director of television, Peter Fincham, removed the song "because he's scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way". Fightin' talk.

The track (watch it below if you can't stand the thought of reading this article – suffice to say, it's the usual whimsy you'd expect from a man who uses straighteners) likens Jesus to a whole bunch of stuff like Woody Allen, Derren Brown as well as lizards and zombies.

Minchin wrote on his whiny blog about it:

"It's not a particularly original idea, I admit, but it's quite cute. It's certainly not very contentious, but even so, compliance people and producers and lawyers all checked my lyrics long before the cameras rolled… [Producer] Suzi and her team edited the show and everybody was happy.

"Suzi felt it had a nice balance of big-ticket celeb action, local talent, and a nice bit of that cheeky, iconoclastic spirit for which Jonathan is known and widely loved. And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV's director of television, Peter Fincham. And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show."

Ross later Tweeted:

"Really gutted that the brilliant @timminchin song has been cut from my show. Decision was out of my hands."

Of course, it isn't surprising that ITV would act like massive bitches when it comes to anything involving something vaguely contentious, although, they're pretty happy to film mentally ill celebrities and follow them around on ITV2 in fly-on-the-wall shows… so… who knows?

No-one really expects anything good from ITV, ever, do they?

An ITV spokesperson told comedy site Chortle:

'It's not unusual for there to be changes to the show in the edit, as we shoot more than goes out, and we felt the tone wasn't quite right for the Christmas show. But we do think Tim's very talented and would love him to work with him on ITV shows again in the future.'"