'Rastamouse' most-complained kids' show in 2011

London, Jan 17 (ANI): 'Rastamouse', a television series about crime-busting Rastafarian mice on the BBC was the most complained about children's programme last year, it has been revealed.

It attracted more than 200 complaints because of the way it 'stereotyped black people' and because of the 'patois' language used by the Jamaican mouse characters.

The CBeebies show, which has run for two series and aimed at children under six, attracted 13 complaints when the first episode was aired last January. There have since been 200 further complaints, the Daily Mail reported.

The BBC has defended the Bafta-nominated show, which features an all-mouse reggae band - Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew.

The puppet mouse spreads love and respect as leader of the Easycrew.e uses patois language - and phrases such as 'me wan go' for 'I want to go' and 'wagwan' for 'what's going on?'arents have complained on Mumsnet that children using the same language as the mice could be accused of racism.

One Mumsnet user, TinyD4ncer, asked fellow users for advice on whether to stop their child watching the programme, posting: "I dont want my DD to talk this way. Do you think I should stop her watching it?

"The thing I'm most worried about is her knowing/saying the words like 'rasta'.

Another user commented: "Frankly this programme is insulting because it uses a lazy stereotype."

"Most educated black people in this country who were born here speak the same as their white peers - some of us have cockney accents, others have RP accents. I am black and have an RP accent as I was the product of private schooling, university etc.

"Children need to lean to speak English properly and I do not understand why having this character would assist that process.

"If the programme makers want to introduce more diversity why not have a black character who speaks like a normal British born black person instead of a character that has a Jamaican accent.

"Surely this makes sense given that we are not living in Jamaica," the user added.

A BBC spokeswoman said nine out of ten complaints had been about the language spoken by the characters.

"This was one of our most popular children's programmes last year," she said.

"We have had a huge amount of positive feedback about Rastamouse, which continues to be a hit with our young viewers and which was consistently in the top ten CBeebies shows viewed on iPlayer throughout 2011," she added. (ANI)