Tuesday, March 15, 2011

English Idyll

Normally over here at ::Acquired Taste we steer clear of contemporary politics (political discourse got pretty dull once poisoning your rivals went out of fashion) but when my bete noir Midsomer Murders hits the headlines, it's time to take stock.

Today the producer of Midsomer Murders, Brian True-May, has been suspended for the observation:
"We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them. 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."
 As a Guardianista I can only find such sentiments distasteful--although the trend for suspending or sacking people for expressing unpopular views is equally unfortunate--but True-May's views encapsulate all the reasons why Midsomer Murders is such piss-poor drama.

In for a penny, in for a pound, and the beleaguered True-May continues to blaze away with both barrels from his Middle England fortress: 
If it's incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality ... terrific, put it in.
Two out of those four are not criminal offences in this country.  Can you guess which?

Best, perhaps, to leave True-May to his thoughts, bellowing in a dark and soundproofed room.  If you listen very hard, maybe you can hear him.  Or maybe not.

9 comments:

no said...

Oh dearie me. That's just not cricket.

The Killing is still ace, though, innit?

Tim Stretton said...

The Killing does indeed remain "fantastisk". Every aspect is excellent but I am particularly enjoying the Machiavellian Mayor Bremer.

no said...

Oooh, he's a baddie. I feel worryingly protective towards poor Troels.

Tim Stretton said...

You won't get near enough Troels to protect him - that Rie will bite your fingers off if you get too close. ("That Rie" also looks worryingly similar--if rather more glamorous--to a work colleague. Sadly none of my colleagues resemble Lund).

Frances Garrood said...

We haven't watched MM since the one and only occasion when we happened upon it. There was a case of electrocution, and the policeman first on the scene shouted into his phone: "electrocution! Bring rubber gloves!" After we'd finished laughng, we decided that really we couldn't take the programme seriously.

C. N. Nevets said...

Yeah, as a libertarian I support people's right to say asinine things without losing their jobs.

As an anthropologist, I kind of get the idea of authenticity.

But to play that MM is an authentic portrayal of the English village is a farce.

Unless, of course, your English villages and wee towns have remarkably higher rates of murder than ours do. Which seems unlikely, to say the least.

Tim Stretton said...

Frances, I think that's probably representative of the drama as a whole.

Nevets, it's certainly a highly elastic definition of "authenticity" that allows MM anywhere within 100 miles.

dolorah said...

Dude; I got lost.

I shouldn't even leave a post that says I was here, but . .

......dhole

Tim Stretton said...

Hope you find your way home, Donna!