Coronation Street apologises over 'racist' comments in Monday's episode

Coronation Street found themselves in controversy this week over comments made on Monday night's episode. OfCom received almost 300 complaints over a line said by Eva Price in Audrey's salon with the soap accused of being racist.

The line in question was when Eva said; "I have more roots than Kunta Kinte. No idea who that is, by the way, just something my mum used to say."

Kunta Kinte refers to a character in the novel Roots: The Saga Of An American Family, which was adapted into a popular TV series in the seventies, and remade again earlier this year.

Kinta is a young man taken from Gambia and sold as a slave, who the author, Alex Healy, always claimed was based on a real-life ancestor.

Viewers took to Twitter to voice their complaints too, while Aaron Moffat-Jackman, a trainee vicar from Old Trafford, told the Manchester Evening News: "What it did was trivialise a horrific traumatic time for many people.

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"Particularly at a time when things are ongoing in America, with many black people getting killed by police, by white people. I think it would be very welcome for ITV to apologise."

A spokesman for the soap has now released a statement saying; "We apologise if this dialogue has caused offence."

While TV watchdog Ofcom said: "Ofcom has received 278 complaints about Coronation Street, which aired on Monday.

"We will assess these complaints before we decide whether to investigate or not."

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