WHEN ITV screened the sitcom "Benidorm", earlier this year, they were so inundated by complaints after an objectionable remark was made about the illness ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) that they apologised in the TV Times (3 - 9 March).

Yet, less than six months later they are repeating the series - and the offence.

My suspicion that Ricky Gervais's apology to ME sufferers, after he had made an offensive joke here in Bristol, was a hollow one was confirmed when he repeated it on his "Fame" tour..

The sad irony is that what each of them said - "M., is that the one where you can't be ar**d to do owt?" (Benidorm) and that there are not so many people in Africa with the "I just can't be bothered disease" because they have more serious pressing issues to deal with (Gervais) - are simply factually incorrect.

The trouble is that, like mud, it sticks as they repeat it again.

It's not just hypersensitivity or the inability of ME sufferers to take a joke. If the public perception is that ME is just a bit of tiredness and that its sufferers are a bunch of whingeing malingerers who need to get off their backsides and pull themselves together, they have a very wrong impression of this devastating disabling illness that wrecks so many lives.

It may also affect the priority for research and the level of funding it attracts.

Why apologise if you don't really mean it? It can't have been a sincere apology if you repeat the original insult.

DR JOHN H GREENSMITH, ME Free For All, North Street, Downend, Bristol