Midsomer Murders -only if you’re white.
The producer of Midsomer Murders has been suspended after a comment about ethnic diversity has shocked television executives.
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The producer of Midsomer Murders has been suspended after a comment about ethnic diversity has shocked television executives.
Brian True-May, co-creator of the show, said the series “wouldn’t work” if there was any racial diversity portrayed in the sleepy village life of the fictional county of Midsomer.
“We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them,” he has told the Radio Times. “It just wouldn’t work. Suddenly we might be in Slough … We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.
“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 long-running series is known for its quaint village setting with classic whodunnit mysteries.
But an ITV spokesman said: “We are shocked and appalled at these personal comments by Brian True-May which are absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV.
“We are in urgent discussions with All3Media, the producer of Midsomer Murders, who have informed us that they have launched an immediate investigation into the matter and have suspended Mr True-May pending the outcome.”
Source: Guardian
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29 Responses
So are they now going to have “tokens”? How very South Park of them…
@Secret Squirrel, thanks, and I agree with you. What Brian T-M said was essentially correct. Yes, his comment about being the “last bastion of Englishness” was clumsily expressed, but I certainly understood what he meant. Historically, an English person has been a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, a WASP. Sleepy English rural villages are full of WASPs to this day, as migrants tend to settle in large cities where they can find work and others of their own ethnic background. It is only in the last 50 years that the ethnic diversity of England has really altered and now, of course, people of multitudinous races and colours are English. But yes, rural English villages, like it or not, are the “last bastions of Englishness” – what is historically considered “English”.
His comment about “the last bastion of Englishness” is offensive because being white doesn’t define being English. Like a few others here, though, I find ITV’s response disingenuous. They can’t have been unaware of this before now. It obviously wasn’t considered a problem until the creator came out and said that excluding black and Asian English people was intentional. Now they’re scrambling to make it look as though they disapprove. I’m sure they didn’t care two hoots about his all-white policy as long as the ratings were strong.
Aussie drama is even worse, though. I’m not a big reality TV fan but I see plenty of diversity when I watch shows like RPA or Masterchef. It’s never presented as a big deal, it’s just a natural reflection of what Australian society is actually like. The contrast between these shows and most scripted drama in this country is really glaring.