Frank Skinner has insisted he’s ‘evolved’ after using offensive language – both racist and homophobic – in his younger years. The Room 101 comedian attributes his behaviour to growing up in the West Midlands in the 1960s and 70s. He lived on a council estate in Oldbury during a time when economic strife and high unemployment levels led to social unrest across the country. Skinner, 65, has said that it was normal to use slurs about people’s ethnicity or sexuality where he grew up. Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, he said: ‘I’ll be straight with you now, I grew up in the West Midlands in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I used racist language, I was sexist, I was homophobic. ‘I completely own up to that.
