Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Captain Jack Harkness
4. The BBC Vetoed A Spicy Captain Jack Shot
What is it with people trying to cut off Captain Jack's head?
In Bad Wolf, Jack has to destroy Trine-E and Zu-Zana with a handily-placed Compact Laser Deluxe before they can remove his skull as part of a very extreme makeover. However, it wasn't the threat of decapitation that got the BBC hot and bothered back in 2005 – it was the implication of where Jack hid his gun.
According to Barrowman, the scene where Trine-E and Zu-Zana remove Jack's clothes was shot full-length, with Barrowman's bum on full display. This is backed-up by what we see (or don't see) in the finished episode – there's a rear shot of Jack's top and jeans being dissolved by the De-Fabricator, which quickly cuts back to his face before we see anything too cheeky.
Pun intended.
Apparently, the BBC vetoed the idea of John Barrowman's bare arse being on primetime BBC1, which necessitated the cut. Barrowman has since jokingly claimed that this was one of his biggest regrets from his time on Doctor Who.
On the plus side, he finally got his wish to broadcast his bum on primetime BBC1 four years later, when a naked Captain Jack was broken out of a concrete breezeblock in Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Two. Thankfully, there were no murderous fashion robots in sight on this occasion.