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Lee Mack's New Show The Chop Suspended As Sky Bosses Investigate 'Nazi' Tattoos

Lee Mack's New Show The Chop Suspended As Sky Bosses Investigate 'Nazi' Tattoos

The trailer was released for his new series The Chop

Amelia Ward

Amelia Ward

Lee Mack's new show The Chop is being investigated after a teaser trailer showed a contestant whose face is covered in tattoos - however, this sparked an outcry on social media as people queried whether one of the tattoos has Nazi connections.

In the trailer for the show above, originally posted to Sky History's Twitter account (but since deleted), host Lee Mack can be seen getting on well with the woodworker. While they talk on the trailer, Darren Lumsden introduces himself as 'the Woodman'.

Mack responds: "If you were the bloke in my town, you wouldn't be known as 'the Woodman'; you'd be 'the bloke with all the tattoos'. Surely they would take precedence."

The tattoos in question include the number 88 on Lumsden's cheek, the word 'Homegrown' on his upper lip and the numbers 23 and 16 on his head.

However, many who saw the trailer pointed out that the numbers inked onto Lumsden's skin are also commonly-used symbols of white supremacism, and queried what this meant for the Bristolian.

The number 88 is said to stand for 'Heil Hitler' - with the initial 'H' corresponding with the eighth letter of the alphabet.

Sky History

Meanwhile, the numbers 23 and 16 are used to signify 'white power', with 23 corresponding with W and 16 with P in the alphabet.

Other social media viewers took issue with the word 'homegrown', suggesting it could have nationalistic connotations.

In response to the subsequent Twitter storm, Sky History released a statement confirming that no episodes of the series would be shown until the origins of the markings were looked into.

Sky History tweeted on its official account: "While we investigate the nature and meaning of Darren's tattoos we have removed the video featuring him from our social media, and will not be broadcasting any eps of The Chop until we have concluded that investigation.

"Sky HISTORY stands against racism and hate speech of all kinds."

Sky History

Earlier in the day, Sky had defended the tattoos, saying the signified important life events to Lumsden.

The channel said: "Darren's tattoos denote significant events in his life and have no political or ideological meaning whatsoever. Amongst the various numerical tattoos on his body, 1988 is the year of his father's death.

"The production team carried out extensive background checks on all the woodworkers taking part in the show, that confirmed Darren has no affiliations or links to racist groups, views or comments.

"Sky HISTORY is intolerant of racism and all forms of hatred and any use of symbols or numbers is entirely incidental and not meant to cause harm or offence."

Featured Image Credit: Sky History

Topics: UK News, TV and Film