[Stuart]

I'll be honest, I have not watched the show (I was busy when it was on), but the trailer made it look a little cliched.

Was it too offensive? I don't know. However, I do know that often to be funny, Comedy needs to overexaggerate things a little. Very few Irish people are like those featured in Father Ted or Mrs Brown's Boys. I suspect very few Torquay Hoteliers are quite like Basil Fawlty. Most Londoners aren't like Delboy, and I don't think anyone is quite as bad as Alf Garnett. The one thing all these characters have in common is that certain traits are exaggerated. With Alf, it's his racism. With the Characters of Father Ted, it's the traits that make them look like Stereotypes.

The point is that none of those characters would be funny without the exaggeration. If you want comedy with minimal exaggeration, look at Terry and June. It probably had one or two laughs, but wasn't (IMO) that funny.

The trouble is, that exaggeration can move the comedy into the offensive territory. A good writer will know just how far to push things.

However, that needs to be balanced against the seemingly increasing number of people who are offended apparently for the sake of being offended.