A TV commercial for a UK ISP featuring comedian Harry Enfield and Winston Churchill has been banned because it is "grossly offensive to the public and the wartime leader's surviving family", reporta the Sunday Telegraph.

The ad - one of three for ISP Madasafish - feature's Enfield's thuggish Frank Doberman character who shouts: "Oi, Winston, No" before calling him a "porky Prime Minister".

But the intervention of the BACC has angered the ISP's boss, David Laurie, who said the ad was not intended to cause offence. He described the ban as "absurd and an affront to the British sense of humour.

"I can hardly believe the Nanny State has come to the point of blocking the kind of ironic mockery for which we are world-famous.

"Of course Madasafish recognises Churchill for the hero he was, but he was also a politician and would certainly have been thick-skinned enough to laugh this off."

All three ads can be seen on Madasafish's website here. ®

Related stories

Harry Enfield fronts Madasafish broadband ad
'Pukka celeb' to front Madasafish ad
BT savaged for 'poorly run' free flights promo
OFT rattles sabre over 'free flights' web offer