The BBC has today apologized to any viewers who may have misinterpreted a line in last night's "EastEnders" episode which referenced Hillsborough.
A line delivered by the one of the programme's characters, Minty Peterson – played by Cliff Parisi – has sparked outrage amongst Liverpool fans who construed it to be equating football hooliganism to the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.
The line in question saw Minty reply say to the show's former-football hooligan character Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord): "Five years out of Europe because of Heysel, because they penned you lot in to stop you fighting on the pitch, and then what did we end up with – Hillsborough."
Members of the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) claim that scriptwriters' reference was irrelevant. One said: "Hillsborough was proven not to be hooliganism. Do the BBC not realise 96 people died and many families are still suffering?"
Similarly, fans on the official Liverpool FC website have also criticised the soap's decision to include such a line, with one suggesting it was an "ignorant, ill-informed and without justification reference to Hillsborough."
However, a spokeswoman for the BBC today told Digital Spy: "In last night's 'EastEnders', Minty was actually reminding Jase that football hooliganism at Heysel led directly to the fencing-in of fans at football matches.
"He points out that this had tragic consequences - for the innocent spectators at Hillsborough. The BBC apologises if this remark was misinterpreted or caused any offence."
Many also believe that the episode in question was "too violent" for its pre-watershed timeslot, with one contributor to the BBC's Points of View message board saying: "Afternoon and early evening violence is unacceptable because youngsters will be watching… Then we wonder why kids start slashing each other in the playgrounds. Such programmes are not suitable for family viewing and should be shown at 10pm or later."
The BBC spokeswoman continued: “Last night’s episode involving the character of Jase reached a climax that many viewers would have been anticipating. Whilst we acknowledge this was a particularly dramatic episode, we were very careful to make sure that the violence portrayed was, in the main, implied rather than explicit."
She added: "As with all of our episodes, this programme adheres to our editorial guidelines. However we are sorry if some people were offended by this drama unfolding.”
In June, the BBC received nearly 200 complaints in an episode which saw Dr May Wright (Amanda Drew) threaten to perform a caesarian on Dawn Swann (Kara Tointon) in a bid to steal her baby.
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