The news that Brian True-May, co-creator and producer of ITV1 crime drama Midsomer Murders, has been suspended from his job for commenting to Radio Times about his refusal to cast ethnic minorities on the show, should come as no surprise. The way he chose to justify his stance read like comments from a bygone age that have no place in the modern broadcasting industry.
That said, I grew up not far from Midsomer country - north Buckinghamshire rather than the South Bucks/South Oxon used for the series’ location filming. And the rural villages of this part of the home counties were, in my youth, almost exclusively white. At my local school (which I left a little over 20 years ago), I think the number of non-white pupils out of the entire school roll of 650+ never got above single figures.
I still live in the area, in a market town that has a small, but noticeable ethnic minority population. But I commute every day into London, through an array of Chiltern villages that includes True-May’s home of Great Missenden.
At most of those intermediate stations, those joining the train are predominantly white. Many are archetypes that one sees on Midsomer Murders itself: the posh stockbroker with copy of the Daily Telegraph that he insists on reading at full spread, oblivious to the discomfort of those sitting next to him. The lady who lunches in her second-best pearls, chattering to her friends while the au pair struggles with the screaming kids further down the carriage.
Taken on its own, that might suggest that to give the series a valid sense of place, the vast majority of the cast should indeed be white. But I’m conscious that I tend to only see the rush hour commuters, at least on my London-bound journey. When travelling off-peak and returning home, the number of non-white faces on board the train does change. Not so noticeably that I would comment on it were it not for this issue hitting the headlines, but change it does.
There is an argument, I suppose, that the Midsomer world is lost in time anyway: take any episode, and cars and mobile phones are the only items likely to date it to a specific year. It is an old-fashioned series set in an old-fashioned world, and any sense of realism goes out the window when you realise that more people have been killed in the sleepy hollow of Badger’s Drift than could ever have lived there in the first place.
But the fact remains that the series is set in the present day, and while Home Counties villages may have a predominance of white residents, having some residents who do come from ethnic minorities does not make those villages any less English.
In the Radio Times article, True-May says:
We’ve never had any complaints. Nothing at all. We’ve had Ofcom complain because somebody said too many bloodies. The bizarre situation is we’ve had about five Barnaby houses, five police stations and nobody’s ever spotted the difference. They just don’t notice.
And yet we’re supposed to believe that the occasional non-white character would mean that Midsomer Murders “just wouldn’t work”? I think not.
I do get fed up of this ethnic nonsense. Why is it that the advert for Pizza's showing a caricatureof an Italian family does not have complaints?. If we were to use an advert with caricatures of a black family there would be hell to pay. I'm sick to death of this constant appeasement of ethnic groups who think they're being victimised. Leave Midsomer alone and let the programme continue as it is instead of all of this political correctness.
Midsomer Murders should be allowed to cast (or not) any person they want. A county like Midsomer may encounter the occasional ethnic minority but when you consider the general realism of the show you can't really complain about this.
It should have been obvious to anyone with a working set of eyes & ears that the series has always excluded minorities. The question is, why haven't people & the media made a fuss about it since the beginning? In fact, why was the series so popular given its obvious exclusion philosophy? I suspect it is because of the same reasons that the producer recently stated: a nostalgia for white village Englishness. Uttering those reasons, however, appears to be vastly different from supporting them. Go figure. I also love the hypocrisy of the tv station: suspend the producer for making 'racist' comments when the tv station was FINANCING the anti-ethnic show all along. Nice!
If brian true-may( one of our most successful producers) loses his job over this ridiculous ethnic witchhunt, iwill boycott itv and any shows made by all3media. 92% of us are white . lets show some gonads and start standing up against this stupidity.
How appalling is this?? I am no racist and in my everyday life I have dealings with people from pretty well every ethnic community, but why do we have to have a member of all of these in every single part of English life? Watch an Indian film - will you see a "caucasian" person in them? No - of course not! This is nonsense and the man should not be suspended for expressing his personal opinion - whatever happened to freedom of speech? This is just typical of the way the UK is going - the vocal minority get what they want because the vast majority can't be bothered to object. I get sick of politicians, and others in control of all things, just rolling over on their backs to all minorities not JUST ethnic ones!!! Seems to me that there is a deeply rooted plan to eliminate all white English people from everything English!!
By the way, you gotta love Scott Matthewman's rant against the show in the above article. Where were you and the rest of the media these last few YEARS??? So typical: Jump in & start kicking once someone is down.
*ticks "employer states that they refuse to even consider hiring people from ethnic minorities" off big list of thigs that racists will attempt to justify as "not racist"*
There seems to be a misconception that it is ethnic minorities who have sacked him. it is not. he was sacked because he inferred that having someone in his show would compromise the 'Englishness' of the show. i am black. I am also English.
It is not hard to see how describing this prosaic lack lustre program as the 'last bastion of englishness' is offensive. In fact, I think it's more offensive to white English people, frankly, as if they all live in a Miss Marple-esque world devoid of reality, separated from the world with nothing but the local tombola to look forward to.
Before you start blaming ethnic minorities for the backlash, blame his evident lack of a touch with reality, then the creators of the show, then the media's hysteria. Ash attalla (Egyptian born) was quoted in the BBC as this "Midsomer Murders is not for someone like me. I'm too young and I find the show rather dull,"
"We have to be careful about seeking out something that offends us and then complaining. I would not want the viewers of Midsomer Murders complaining about something I liked."
So maybe don't tar ethnic minorities with the same brush? It tends not to go down well. And don't sweep his insensitive comment under the politically correct rug. It's ridiculous and, frankly, so is this argument.
I woke up to a discussion of this issue on the Today programme. I was astonished. Someone called Ash Atallah said that True-May "should be kept away from the world's media from now on."
We seem to be re-living the McCarthy era, when professional people would lose their jobs and be ruined for holding certain views.
How can this be happening in dear old England?
I'd hardly call his piece 'a rant', Carlo. It's actually rather considered. Have you actually read it, or just the last two lines?
I for one am surprised and disturbed to discover this crossover between Stage readers and EDL supporters. Who knew that theatre was a hotbed of eugenicists?
I don't think the issue is that Midsomer doesn't have any ethinc minorities - it is not a fact that anybody has pointed out before - I think it's True-May's explanation. He's suggested that to show any ethnic minority would take away the show's 'Englishness.' This is an outdated attitude. I also live in a tiny village, very near to where Midsommer is based, and although the area is predominately white it is by no means exclusively white. Our vicar, a typically English bumbling, gentle chap is black. Perhaps it would be fairer to surmise that although an area like Midsomer would be mainly habited by the white population, it by no means should be exclusive. I don't agree with inserting minorities into a programme purely for quota or to tick the boxes, but lets have a fair and accurate representation of what this part of the world is like.
I've never seen so many comments for one article on here!
For me - this is about good actors being automatically written off for roles that they could be suitable for if the Producer didn't have an all-white casting policy.
It's got nothing to do with P.C. diversity quotas.
And speaking as a writer (white) - I hate that we're constantly advised to create generic Scottish (I'm a Scot) or English characters... unless the 'issue' is their background it's difficult to even sneak an Irish character in... there's lots of interesting stuff out there being unfairly censored.
I suppose it comes down to whether you think Midsomer Murders is meant to poke fun at Little England or to lampoon it. I've always thought the point of it was to feature characters you could freely make fun of because they're profoundly thick but privileged. If I'm wrong and there are people who would actually feel proud to share a 50-strong village with neighbours like that, I'm genuinely chilled.
The Editor, The Stage (for publication, please)
Re: The suspension of Brian True-May, Producer of 'Midsomer Murders'.
Brian True-May is a charming man, but his reported comments and those of two members of his regular cast, Neil Dudgeon and Jason Hughes, is typical of the unconscious, ignorant, racism that underlies the UK 's entertainment industry and society.
Fear of difference and colour prejudice is endemic in all parts of the world. When I was last in India, I was sickened by the sight on local television of a Bollywood megastar advocating skin whitening cream.
Apparently having a Welshman (albeit one whose liberalism extends as far as thinking it would be fantastic if Midsomer Murders had a black gardener) in the series does not impede the 'Englishnes's of the programme. And Mr Dudgeon, supporting his Producer, is reported as being against all change to the successful programme except, unsurprisingly, the one that guarantees his own employment in a plum leading role.
This is nothing new. I was once told by an honest TV producer that he couldn't have people like me on his programme as it would affect sales to the then all-white South Africa. What was that bit about the love of money being the root of all evil?
Mind you, there is another form of racism often practised by earnest liberals that wishes to show token stereotypes of 'non-white' characters, who on UK TV are frequently forced to share the same accents, educational, economic, regional, linguistic heritage no matter where they come from. You know what I mean, and if you don't, ask any of your 'non-white' friends.
Incidentally, I was born in British India, work professionally as an actor in the UK as I have done for nearly half a century, and live in a village in England. And, I don't suppose this letter will help me gain employment in Midsomer Murders.
Love and Peace.
Yours', in equity,
Madhav Sharma
When I commented on this story about two and a half hours ago there were 5 comments - all deploring the action - have these all been subjected to censorship? Where are they now??
It's terrifying that people are genuinely surprised that a man who made explicit his desire to prevent ethnic minorities from appearing in a TV show featuring so many cast members has been suspended. Isn't that a good thing? Do we not approve of replacing people with the power to hire others if they apply an unapologetically racist policy?
Apologies for the last comment, they now seem to be back
Yes Bob, 'I do get fed up of this ethnic nonsense' is still there. Deep sigh of relief for fictional English villages everywhere...
love, the Vocal Minority, aka... ITV producers.
I wish more people would have the courage to admit that True-May is quite right and that there is nothing wrong with saying what he did, without peddling, as does Rob Berkeley of the Runnymede Trust, some political agenda of their own.
There are many ‘Englands’ today - some (most) all white, particularly in rural areas; others a bit more mixed and yet others (towns) very black and all shades in between.
The majority of England’s inhabitants are white - some 90 per cent or more. In tens of thousands of villages throughout rural England, by far the majority, if not all, of the inhabitants are white. Why, therefore, is it surprising that Midsomer Murders should reflect their lifestyle and background? The programmes give pleasure to millions and there is nothing wrong with that.
Racism comes in many forms - that is why I believe True-May’s bosses in ITV and All3Media, in their ghastly ‘Politically Correct’ world, quite parallel to and divorced from the real one, are the true guilty ones in this whole sorry
episode. It is their views that are unrepresentative of the reality in our countryside and not the other way round.
Metropolitan liberals, who largely make up the urban, chattering media classes, are not only pursuing their own multi-racial agenda at the expense of the rest of us, but totally ignore the fact that the ethnic make up of their own
organisations is grossly misbalanced in its racial composition, compared to the national average equivalent.
In that sense, I believe it can be justly claimed that such organisations are institutionally racist - certainly they are too often blind to the reality of life outside their urban environments and perhaps deliberately so.
So it is unsurprising that so much of their programme content is unrepresentative of the lifestyles of the predominantly white families in rural England, who have frequently to endure a multi-racial TV experience more
suited to their urban counterparts.
Midsomer Murders is a classic programme and reflects great credit on True-May and his production team - long may it continue!
Richard: I note that you seem to think that people who disagree with you are pursuing some "political agenda of their owm", but you don't acknowledge that people like you, who brought the Runnymede Trust into a comment on a post that made no reference to them, are committing the very act you accuse others of.
Incidentally, I'm currently on the train route I mentioned in my piece, which passes through what might be deemed 'Midsomer country'. The commuters are not exclusively white. Indicating that nor are the populations of the villages we're passing through.
In what way would reflecting that reality on a show set in this part of the country be "less English", in True-May's words, by reflecting that on screen?
Only in Britain do you get this obsession with ethnic quotas and fear of offending any kind of group. I hail from Finland where the majority of us are white and blue eyed - there's a space for me in an episode of MM surely? Meanwhile, back in Japan ppl are dying, suffering, struggling to cope with the loss of loved ones and all their worldly possessions and their hometowns. How fortunate we are to live in a country where we can bleat on about such trivial matters such as the lack of ethnics in Midsomer Murders.
are the same people freaking out over BTM's comments the same ones who made a big outcry over the CBBC show "Rastamouse" being offensive because it ? featured a Rastafarian mouse speaking Jamaican patois? I'm black btw and I like midsomer mainly because it is devoid of the excess violence, sex, swearing, drug abuse and other stuff which is depicted 24/7 in shows such as CSI, and yes even soaps such as eastenders. midsomer is 2 hours of escapism.
I don't think it is trivial that good actors may be denied roles because their skin colour is deemed to be not English... & I don't think it's trivial that an executive producer thinks that to be very English you have to keep dark skin out of a show.
It's got nothing to do with ethnic quotas - if they never got round to hiring a non-white actor by coincidence - I wouldn't care. It's the deliberate colour bar I find disgusting & artistically unjustifiable.
And I've never seen 'Rastamouse' & I haven't' complained about it - so we're not the same people.
My chief point is that, while Midsomer may be set in Hertfordshire, it portrays a quintessentially English rural setting, which predominates from Hampshire to Dorset, from Wiltshire to Gloucestershire, from Yorkshire to Shropshire and all points between, excluding all towns and conurbation.
In other words, Midsomer can be located anywhere in white rural England and there is, I still hope, nothing wrong with that, or saying that.
So assessing the racial composition of South Buckinghamshire or South Oxfordshire, because the programme happens to be made there and criticising True-May for failing to reflect this, is quite irrelevant to the argument.
Given, and it is a given, that so much of rural England is still white and English, I cannot, for the life of me, see why True-May cannot reflect this in his programme and discuss the issue openly and honestly without the shrill, knee-jerk reaction from the PC media brigade, who are now pursuing such a vengeful agenda against him and seeking to destroy his career.
I find the whole issue of race deeply interesting. For example, is Keith Vaz an Asian, an Asian Brit or an Englishman? Certainly, in my view he cannot be the latter. After several generations in this country, I remain an Irish Brit - How can I possible be English?
I suppose it depends upon whether you consider the word ‘English’ to represent a race rather than a nationality. To me it refers to a race - our nationality is ‘British’ as is that of Keith Vaz, who remains in my view Asian.
I live in rural Hampshire where I went to a wedding lunch the other day. The lady beside me, a complete stranger, observed as we sat down “I haven’t been to such a disgracefully white occasion for years.” And, indeed, there were no brown faces there - that is just the way it is in this part of the country, and we are not bothered one way or the other.
I can guarantee she was the only one of 250 persons who even thought such a thing. Needless to say, when I asked her where she worked, she replied “The BBC”.
That is why I would suggest that the problem chiefly lies in the media and not in those ordinary English men and women who happen to reside in the countryside, who are by and large white, and are generally quite uninterested in this whole subject, unless their common sense is insulted as it is now.
This PC cr@p really gets my goat.Brian True-May -it says- is the Co Creator and Producer of MM.So cannot the creator have their way? I am sure it's popularity is because of it's "Englishness". Oh dear that's now become a swear word.
I find Madhav Sharma's letter offensive.A huge chip on the shoulder.There are dozens of other roles they could apply for I am sure.Has he berated the producers of "Darling Buds of May" for not having an ethnic in the family? Try the Bollywood you obviously despise.
Lets be honest - Midsomer Murders does not reflect on Britain today.But why should it? I believe there have been over 150 murders in the area.Totally unrealistic.Yet NOW people are moaning because it's unrealistic not to have a brown face or three.
Go and see "Frankenstein" at the National and look at PC casting go disasterously pear-shaped re Victor Frankenstein's father.Totally W-R-O-N-G especially as he can't even act.
Read Quentin Lett's article in the Mail. (I do not buy the Mail but it came up when I googled MM.)
Look at Japan.It's desperately sad,yet here people are damning a man who just makes programmes & employs hundreds in the profession.ITV hierarchy need a good slap- they must've made millions from MM yet cannot support the creator.
Richard
English isn't a race - it's an amalgamation of European tribes (& anyone else whose genes got into the mix through wars & Empires).
There is an English Culture - but that doesn't need to be exclusively white - unless the prime makers & promoters of English Culture don't want brown skin in their programmes.
And you can be English if you want. You must be attached to Irish culture or you wouldn't say you were Irish. I'm a Scot, but I've read more English authors than I have Scottish - I'd fit right in - unless I moved next to a bunch of people who hated my accent.
Mrs Spratt
We're not moaning because it's unrealistic - we're moaning because there's a deliberate - totally needless - colour bar being enforced.
Multi-culturalists (as we're getting labelled) - haven't been persecuting Brian True-May - he's been excluding dark skinned actors for years.
Karen-
I don't think it's a totally needless colour bar being "enforced".It's just ONE programme FCS.Are you taking it out on Mr True-May because you cannot get an acting job?Are your skills up to it?Murder then is OK if you are using that lame argument.Hence the proliferation of murders in all our soaps.
It's one programme with a lot of roles - it could keep it's style and content easily without being racist. A colour bar (with no artistic merit) is wrong on one programme or a hundred.
It's silly to put 'enforced' in quotes like that - the producer has clearly said he doesn't put ethnic minorities in the show & he hopes it never does. It is being enforced.
And it's a cute trick to claim I'm upset because I'm a bad actress - but since I'm blonde, as white as a human can get & not an actress - I don't think I'd pick this particular issue to vent on. I gain nothing from it - I just think it's morally wrong.
And why are you so angry that the occasional non-white actor gets a role when there are lots & lots of white actors happily working away with no possibility that their skin colour is going to result in no work?
My last comment was aimed at dear old Mrs Spratt.
I haven't a clue how 'murder is ok... ' is related to my posts... so I'll have to ignore it.
Karen- with a name like that I didn't think you were "ethnic" but who cares?
Now YOU are being AGEIST - you sour hypocrite -purporting to be caring.YUK.You do not know my age.So you are blonde (figures -using your hypocritical stance)-NOT ethnic,NOT an actress. But "moralistic" to the core -taking up the baton for people who can speak for themselves.Re the "murder is OK".Nobody moralises or stands up to the unrealistic murder count in the programme,which moralistically is worse than not having an ethnic face- was my argument if you want to get pedantic.
I'll ignore your posts in the future too.
What a load of rubbish!! I like many others watch midsomer and I think It's great, I also think that getting rid of Brian True-may is out of order,we have had people living in this country for years and had no problems,but we have one group of people who moved here and have done nothing but complain we have all the ethnic minorites we need on every advert we dont need anymore ,I T V seems to forget this is GREAT BRITAIN ENGLAND and the people who are white Anglo Saxon get upset with having this Human rights rubbish constantly keeping on, why come and live In a country that's so awful for them ,go and live elsewhere ,If I have to watch midsomer filling up with ethnic minorities and If one or more get's killed that will be wrong as well ,I will just not bother watching any I T V programme ever again,we live In a villiage and there are no black people at all but It wouldn't bother me If there were Black people living here they are usually very nice people,It's just one group that cause the problem and not just In this country,I do wonder If we went to live In Iran and complained over there as they do here what the outcome would be,anything ENGLISH and white we have to get rid of we are called racists If we open our mouths but they can say anything they like and that's o k .why are our politicians so utterly useless and what happened to our beautiful country the P C BRIGADE have distroyed It, and no one as told them to shut up !!!!funds
Mrs Spratt
Have you forgotten that 'dear old' is an English expression for anything affectionally remembered - like 'in the dear old Summertime'. It wasn't a reference to whatever age you happen to be... I don't even know if you're a woman... Mrs Spratt sounds like nome de plume.
I'm not being moralistic - I'm being fair. It's an Equity issue.
Real actors have been denied real jobs. Fictional murders don't kill anyone - but there's always a debate to be had about how graphic/amoral a storyline can be.
Midsomer Murders was based on a series of books by another author.
If the characters in those books have not caused objection, why the fuss now?
Midsomer Murders is simply based on the book and no racial bias was intended I feel, but there will always be those who are unable to take a moderate view where race is involved.
The poll says it all - most people find nothing wrong with MM
Did you ever see that sketch where Lenny Henry auditions for the part of Annie?
No one in their right mind would expect him to be succesful in getting the part but he played the race card and was next seen cavorting around the stage in a short blue gingham dress.
I rest my case
But it's not moderate to say you would never put a non-white actor in the show because it would wreck it's Englishness. That's what he seemed to be implying & that's why some of us are objecting.
If he didn't mean that - then everything is fine.
I think our reaction is reasonable - it's the people backing BTM's statements that have descended into shrill fury, personal insults, massive conspiracy theories, & racial abuse.
Hang on--haven't people missed the point? Surely its inconceivable that in 2011 someone in the police, the ambulance service or the local council (characters who are integral parts of the series) is necessarily going to be white? And isn't the point of the series that quintissential village "Englishness" is a front for lust, greed, sexual deviation, murder and crime? Maybe people watch the show because it reflects English standards better than Coronation Street or East Enders.
I live in Chesham, Bucks - which has appeared in Midsommer Murders many times.
We have a large Asian community & a mosque. The minister in my church is from Sri Lanka & the previous one from Africa. My dentist is Asian. There's also a small but thriving Thai community in town.
If MM has a policy to exclude cetain people, it's a shame that they are excluding possible story lines - and let's face it, they could do with something new in it - I only watch it to spot local locations
The response to the question "why are there no blacks?" Should be "Why is it a problem we are all white?"
Why stop there? After all, only the red haired can honestly and truly claim to be indigenous to these Isles.
After saying that, I can see an argument for letting one or two darkies onto the show. Perhaps, a few token darkies should be allowed on as guests, starring each week as the townie ‘murderer’ and his hapless ‘victim’.