Fur flies over racist name of Dambuster's dog

The multimillion-pound remake of the film The Dambusters has become mired in a debate about political correctness over the name of a major character's dog.

Nigger, a black Labrador, was Wing Commander Guy Gibson's faithful companion and the mascot of the RAF's 617 Squadron, which carried out the successful 1943 bouncing bomb raid on Germany's Ruhr dams.

Peter Jackson, the New Zealander who is producing the remake of the 1954 epic starring Richard Todd, is known to be passionate about remaining faithful to the authentic details of the story.
But others working on the blockbuster, which is backed by Hollywood studios and has a £ 26 million budget, are insisting that the dog's name is too racially offensive, particularly in the crucial United States market.

The Dambusters with Guy Gibson [Richard Todd] and Nigger

Nigger was mentioned 12 times in the original, and also featured prominently in the book by Paul Brickhill, published three years earlier, on which the film was based.

Stephen Fry, the actor who is writing the new script, was asked to come up with alternative names for Nigger.

But Sir David Frost, the executive producer, is reported to have rejected all the options Fry offered.
Sir David has been quoted as saying: "Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that's what we will call it.

"Stephen has been coming up with other names but this is the one I want."

Matthew Dravitzki, Jackson's executive assistant, said this week: "A lot of people have said that the dog's name was Nigger and, to stay true to the story, you can't just change it."
He told Wellington's Dominion-Post newspaper: "That name is talked about a lot, but we have not made any decision yet.

"The script is still being written and that decision on whether we have Nigger or not will be made closer to the time."

Jackson, who has a collection of Second World War aeroplanes and memorabilia, originally sought to make the film because of his interest in the subject.

He said, when announcing his plans in 2006: "It is not our intention to offend people. But really you are in a no-win, damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don't scenario.

"If you change it, everyone's going to whinge and whine about political correctness. And if you don't change it, obviously you are offending a lot of people inadvertently."

In most recent television reshowings of the 1954 film, the dog's name is either edited out or altered.

An edited version for American television has Nigger's name redubbed as Trigger.