Weren’t UK comedians doing blackface long after it was taboo in the U.S.? I swear I saw a Benny Hill sketch where he was made up that way, although I can’t recall if it’s was the 70’s syndicated version here or the “unexpurgated” versions that ran on cable tv for a time in the early 90’s.
When I was growing up there was the very popular Black and White Minstrel Show it played in the same sort of strand as The Good Old Days which was partially the inspiration for The Muppet Show.
By the late seventies it was becoming clear that what was genuinely innocent entertainment from a culture reflecting on ethnic situations it had no real experience of to being rather sinister. Les Want was one of the performers on the show and he was doing his usual very popular routine at a Royal variety performance and then spotted his musical heroine Diana Ross and approached her to say hello. It was the way she recoiled from him that was a contributing factor to it being taken off air in 1978.
The Benny Hill sketch might have been a reference to the outcry from older viewers who still wanted the show to exist because of the songs and the feelings of nostalgia for seaside entertainers who had been putting on face make-up of all kinds since long before the UK had a diverse ethnic mix. The Goodies did a similar skit. The intention being to mock the use of black face not endorse it. It still feels weird watching it though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5olIvNVQKA