The BBC’s Editorial Guidelines do not require absolute accuracy, but specify “due” accuracy, taking account of context and audience expectations.  The context here was a comedy programme.  It opened with a conversation with an imaginary customer (later revealed to have the same name as the Director-General of the BBC) who said “People say to me, Alexei should be less controversial, less inflammatory, less aggressive, but I say, no, you go girl.  You carry on.  Say what you like.  It doesn't matter if some of the things you say might not be entirely factually correct.  Some of the things you say might be disturbingly partisan or just deranged, or extremely unpleasant, but the country desperately needs you to say these things, needs you to speak out for a different viewpoint that challenges the stale and repressive orthodoxy of the media”.  In the ECU’s view this would have led listeners in general to expect something less than strict accuracy in what followed.  In particular, it was unlikely that they would have taken Mr Sayle to have been speaking literally when he said “After the war, 8,000 members of the Galicia Division, because they were ferociously right wing and would be useful to MI6, were allowed secretly to come to Britain where they were given homes, incomes, and new identities”, particularly as he went on to identify Tommy Cooper, Cilla Black and both Rod Hull and Emu as being among their number.  Accordingly, the ECU found no departure from the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.

Not upheld