A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Midsomer Murders? No Gay, Black, Asian or Minority victims or perpetrators portrayed!

Shock Horror! Midsomer cops confronted by strange PCs
The producer of ITV1's Midsomer Murders has been suspended after saying the drama "wouldn't work" if there was racial diversity in the show. ITV's Political Correctness Unit has gone into an outrage of humbug over it. Quite OK for them to produce the show for so long, but NEVER EVER say there are no minorities. Talk about being in the closet!

Brian True-May, who co-created the series, told the Radio Times the long-running drama was a "last bastion of Englishness" and should stay that way. Of course, he is utterly right in his comments. This is all fictional fare that keeps many amused as they watch. Bemused too, no doubt. It isn't really serious. Yet you can't speak the bald truth in England anymore if it has anything to do with race, sex or a religion other than Christianity. You have to be sure not to offend the Stasi-like PC brigade.

Every sane person knows that Midsomer Murders is not set amongst the leafless lanes of East London. If you want Eastenders meets Poirot create something. So long as it's watchable, we'll watch.

Mr True-May added, "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work." Asked why "Englishness" could not include other races who are well represented in modern society, he said, "Well, it should do, and maybe I'm not politically correct. I'm trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don't want to change it."

The BBC says that a study in 2006 found the programme to be "strikingly unpopular" with viewers from ethnic minorities. Well, excuse me, if a load of Bollywood movies was stuck up on the screen, I'm sure that they would be "strikingly unpopular" with the vast majority. Not because that majority is made up of bigoted racists all foaming at the mouth, but because they genuinely may not like such TV.

Given the way the country is going, I'm sure that this may get some clamouring for Midsomer Murders to have a Taliban type hacking old ladies about, but I'm quite happy as it is. I watch the show. It doesn't make me a racist, or anything else.

It's just a television programme!

2 comments:

I agree with you over the pathetic PC storm that has been created here.

My only quibble is that, contrary to your headline, there *has* been an over-representation of homosexual, lesbian or other 'alternative' sexual orientations, right from the earliest episodes. It's amazing how, according to the scriptwriters, virtually every small English village seems to have single-sex relations, incest or child abuse going on...

Arden - could you contact me regarding Midsomer Murders on elisa.kennedy@bbc.co.uk we are discussing it on our drivetime show tonight.
thanks

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