In the original 1955 film about British World War 2 scientists who developed a bouncing bomb to attack Germany's dams, the dog's name was spoken 12 times as a code word to report successful dam breaches to RAF Bomber Command.
Script writer Stephen Fry told The Daily Mail it was out of the question that in America you could ever have a dog called Nigger -- a word constantly repeated in the original film.
"It's no good saying that it is the Latin word for black or that it didn't have the meaning that it does now -- you just can't go back, which is unfortunate," Fry explained.
Mervyn Hallam, curator of RAF Scampton Museum in England, said Fry was trying to 'rewrite history'.
"It's not a problem with coloured people, it's the people in power creating the problem. Sod their political correctness and sod human rights.
"They should keep the dog's name the same -- it's ridiculous that they are trying to rewrite history. His grave is still here with his name on it."
In the context of the film it was not a racist name, he said.
