Now, this is a bit worrying.

Ofcom has cleared ITV1′s cooking reality show Hell’s Kitchen of breaching the broadcasting code after receiving nearly 200 complaints about alleged homophobic bullying on the series.

The media regulator said 197 viewers complained after comedian Jim Davidson was shown to make “bullying and homophobic comments” such as “shirt-lifter” and “poof” – largely directed towards former Big Brother winner Brian Dowling.

In its ruling, Ofcom said that viewers were now used to the way in which reality shows worked and were able to vote people out if they did not like their behaviour.

It added that it would be a “disproportionate limitation” on freedom of expression to require all contestants to “only express views that met generally accepted standards”.

There’s light touch regulation and then there’s dereliction of duty…

I can’t wait to see what happens when a BNP activist eventually slips through one of these nets.  Presumably Ofcom will just tell any discomfited viewers to phone the premium rate telephone numbers to make sure that (a) the nasty man gets voted off, and (b) the network responsible lines its pockets.