POPULAR Birmingham poet Benjamin Zephaniah has backed hit children’s TV show Rastamouse after the patois-speaking puppet sparked a race row.

Critics of the woolly-hatted star of the CBeebies children’s channel – whose mission is to “make a bad ting good” – say the programme is racist and promotes the use of slang.

But Handsworth-born Zephaniah, 52, has given his support to the show, which was first screened last month.

He said: “It’s not the greatest representation of the community, and the accents are not very accurate, probably because people wouldn’t understand a real one.

“But it’s the first, so of course it is going to attract criticism.

“The fact that he’s a mouse isn’t great. If you asked the community 99 per cent would want a lion, but so would English football fans.

“On the whole, I’d rather have Rastamouse than not.”

Rastamouse is filmed in the fictional Nuff song recording studio in Mouseland.

Celebrity fans of the furry rodent and his reggae band, Da Easy Crew, include singer Lily Allen and rapper Dizzee Rascal.