A former scriptwriter for Basil Brush has defended the BBC puppet against claims of racism which are currently being investigated by Northamptonshire Police.

Colin Bostock-Smith, who wrote episodes of the popular children's programme during the 1980s, said Basil was traditionally rude to everyone with "almost Tourettes-like enthusiasm".

The show came under fire after a member of Northamptonshire's travelling community made a complaint about a six-year-old episode, which portrayed a gypsy selling lucky heather and wooden pegs, at a meeting of the Northamptonshire Travellers Action Group.

Mr Bostock-Smith said: "When I wrote Basil's scripts back in the early eighties, I relied on one solid maxim: that a puppet can say things a human character cannot.

"As a result Basil sprayed insults with almost Tourettes-like enthusiasm. He was rude to everyone. Now, thanks to the racism charge, such freedom may be gone forever. Boom, boom."

In a national newspaper column, MP Anne Widdecombe said the move by police to investigate the allegation made a "nonsense" of race laws.

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She said: "The idiot complainants are the gypsies who have involved Northamptonshire Police, who have in turn approached the BBC.

"It is good news to know that there are no burglaries or assaults in that county because, otherwise, the police would not have found the time to investigate this rot.

"I don't actually object very much if someone wants to point out to the BBC that this sort of portrayal is a bit of a silly stereotype, but that is a world away from treating it as a criminal offence.

"The police should have told the complainants to go and get a life but instead, solemnly logged it as an offence of a racist nature."

In the controversial episode, which is available on DVD and was recently repeated on the digital channel CBBC, a gypsy woman offers heather and wooden pegs, while a joke ends in the punchline that a fortune teller had stolen Basil's wallet.

Hate crime officers are currently investigating the complaint as "a racist incident".

Insp John McKinney said: "When a person feels offended and makes a complaint of this nature to our hate crimes unit we are duty bound to investigate it appropriately with the appropriate level of resources."

elizabeth.lee@northantsnews.co.uk