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beccaelizabethBBC Midsomer Murders producer suspended over race row
Guardian Midsomer Murders producer suspended over diversity remarks
The difference in headlines is fascinating given that the rest of the article is so very close to the same.
The basics about race: Someone noticed out loud that there are only white people in 'Midsomer Murders'. On the radio, with people listening. So far, so another-day-on-LJ with a wider audience. But the someone in question was the producer, and they said they were doing it on purpose. Deliberately. Because, you see, that way it's an English village.
Cue immediate suspension and big row.
The Guardian's framing it as a 'diversity remarks' issue brings in the other things he said - he happily includes other aspects of diversity. "If it's incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality ... terrific, put it in, because people can believe that people can murder for any of those reasons," he said.
And this is the *facepalm* built in to so much crime drama, that they'll bundle homosexuality in with incest, that they'll include it only as a motive for murder. At this point I'm thinking that ethnic minorities might be well off out of it.
The other interesting remark was from Ash Atalla: "Interestingly the show's been going for years and years, there hasn't been a black actor and nobody's batted an eyelid until the co-creator himself pointed it out to the world."
And yes, it's interesting, because until someone said something it was just wallpaper same old same old.
But it's also fair to make a fuss now, because it's the difference between background institutional racism unconscious exclusion, and hanging out a big sign saying "No Coloureds". If it's on accident, same old wearying invisibility. But if it's deliberate, and framed as being about Englishness? Oh, hello great big row and possibly having broken the law out loud.
He said it was about being the "last bastion of Englishness", and "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work."
Once some dude in charge starts saying English does not include ethnic minorities you have a great big row, and not incidentally a great big audience demographic you've waved goodbye to. Which was already known, that it weren't popular in that group, but again, there's a difference between failing to appeal and deliberately slamming the door in their face.
When talking about Midsomer there's a lot of talk about 'old fashioned English villages'. Well I live in Norfolk, not widely known for its multicultural ethnic diversity, the bus I take to university goes through a winding set of English villages, and yet somehow my day involves ethnic diversity. I have remarked before I'll see more ethnic diversity in the college library than the average television show, and we're not Slough or anywhere famous for it. Even the out of the way places are getting more diverse.
One could consider it progress that these remarks make a row now. Or that anyone noticed them being made.
But it would really help if TV did a little self audit in result of this, because seriously, a lot of television is white. A lot more of television than of Britain.
Guardian Midsomer Murders producer suspended over diversity remarks
The difference in headlines is fascinating given that the rest of the article is so very close to the same.
The basics about race: Someone noticed out loud that there are only white people in 'Midsomer Murders'. On the radio, with people listening. So far, so another-day-on-LJ with a wider audience. But the someone in question was the producer, and they said they were doing it on purpose. Deliberately. Because, you see, that way it's an English village.
Cue immediate suspension and big row.
The Guardian's framing it as a 'diversity remarks' issue brings in the other things he said - he happily includes other aspects of diversity. "If it's incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality ... terrific, put it in, because people can believe that people can murder for any of those reasons," he said.
And this is the *facepalm* built in to so much crime drama, that they'll bundle homosexuality in with incest, that they'll include it only as a motive for murder. At this point I'm thinking that ethnic minorities might be well off out of it.
The other interesting remark was from Ash Atalla: "Interestingly the show's been going for years and years, there hasn't been a black actor and nobody's batted an eyelid until the co-creator himself pointed it out to the world."
And yes, it's interesting, because until someone said something it was just wallpaper same old same old.
But it's also fair to make a fuss now, because it's the difference between background institutional racism unconscious exclusion, and hanging out a big sign saying "No Coloureds". If it's on accident, same old wearying invisibility. But if it's deliberate, and framed as being about Englishness? Oh, hello great big row and possibly having broken the law out loud.
He said it was about being the "last bastion of Englishness", and "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work."
Once some dude in charge starts saying English does not include ethnic minorities you have a great big row, and not incidentally a great big audience demographic you've waved goodbye to. Which was already known, that it weren't popular in that group, but again, there's a difference between failing to appeal and deliberately slamming the door in their face.
When talking about Midsomer there's a lot of talk about 'old fashioned English villages'. Well I live in Norfolk, not widely known for its multicultural ethnic diversity, the bus I take to university goes through a winding set of English villages, and yet somehow my day involves ethnic diversity. I have remarked before I'll see more ethnic diversity in the college library than the average television show, and we're not Slough or anywhere famous for it. Even the out of the way places are getting more diverse.
One could consider it progress that these remarks make a row now. Or that anyone noticed them being made.
But it would really help if TV did a little self audit in result of this, because seriously, a lot of television is white. A lot more of television than of Britain.
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Date: 2011-03-20 12:11 am (UTC)