The Absolutely Fabulous star began the British film awards ceremony on Sunday night with a series of gags about the nominated films and stars, but some viewers were shocked at her quip about the film BlacKkKlansman.

Welcoming the movie's director Spike Lee and star Adam Driver to the ceremony, Lumley said: "It's an incredible film, it has already won many awards.

"I'm surprised it did so well at the Klan Film Festival."

People watching the broadcast were stunned at the star's gag.

"Ooh, that Klan joke was an absolute clunker," said one person on Twitter,

"Joanna Lumley's Klan Film Festival joke was ill advised. Lowlight of a cringeworthy opening to #BAFTA," said another.

One person posted: "@BAFTAs we're off to a cracking start right up until Joanna Lumley lost her damn mind and made a Klan Film Festival joke."

"The Klan film festival"?! Imagine...someone actually got paid for writing Lumley's script. Shocking stuff," said another.

Discussing how long Richard E Grant had waited for a part such as his role in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Lumley referred to a recent story about the actor receiving a reply to a letter he sent Barbra Streisand 47 years ago.

Lumley said: "An actor can wait decades for a role like that, just slightly less time than you have to wait for a reply from Barbara Streisand wasn't it darling? Was that 44 years?

"But it is lovely to see Babs getting around to doing her correspondence. Well done sweetheart. It makes me feel like a saint actually."

Viewers were unimpressed with the entire monologue, calling it "painful" and "cringeworthy".

"These. Jokes. Are. Dire. Joanna Lumley deserves better," said one person.

"Rumours of an arrest warrant out for the writer of Joanna Lumley's jokes at tonight's BAFTAs. Some of those lines were criminal," joked another.

One said: "Joanna Lumley is terrible. Poor jokes. Dead silence twice there from the audience."

Australian Associated Press