linking to the Telegraph’s editorial Terror victims are BBC licence-payers, too, the Telegraph has more coverage of the BBC drops Casualty suicide bomb plotline story that has been discussed in the comments here. Lord Tebbit is quoted:
People were perfectly free during the violence in Northern Ireland to produce dramas about terrorism for which presumably they might have been accused of stereotyping IRA terrorists or even suggesting that all Catholics were terrorists. What is the difference here?
The BBC exists in a world of New Labour political correctness.
Meanwhile, Telegraph writer Damian Thompson has a new blog piece about how the BBC’s coverage of Islam is gutless, particularly in contrast to that of Channel 4, producer of documentaries such as Undercover Mosque, a hidden-camera investigation of what some Imams preach to their faithful.
It’s a difficult problem (not just for the BBC) choosing the ethnicity of screen villains. Either you make all villains generic white, i.e. essentially neutral/neuter; mix up the ethnicity of the gangs in a totally unrealistic way by inserting token characters or pick a minority and face the flack. Picking an evil ‘ethnic’ then becomes a legal/publicity minefield. Does anyone really think the integrity of Casualty as a ‘work of art’ is worth being sued for?
Replacing the more realistic Muslims with Animal Rights activists must have been tremendously difficult for the editors. Firstly BBC types are largely in the same camp as the activists (militants?) and secondly the activists might leave a horse’s head in their bed albeit one from fake fur and stuffed with rags.
When someone finds a workable formula please let me know.
“When someone finds a workable formula please let me know”
Tell the truth.
Bliss | 21.08.07 – 11:58 am
Works well in News and Documentary (or should). I was talking about Drama.
Granted that it sometimes difficult to distinguish the difference on the screen. Scriptwriters have to make these choices or stick to Science Fiction.
Well,my `ethnicity` would be english,and thats never caused a problem for broadcasters and film makers(or me) looking for a `bad guy`.
As for the `integrity` of casualty as a piece of art,if it`s not honest,it aint
art, it has No integrity.
Worth being sued for? I suppose that reflects on the bbcs abject cowardice regarding the fear of protest and implied violence,which is strange as the one reliable thing about the bbc is that we know complaints will ignored,now we have the bbc pre-empting protest and abandoning any pretence of courage or integrity.
Agreeing with Bliss.
Can i have my money back?
“Spooks” featured home-grown Islamic terrorists using British teenagers as suicide bombers before the events of 7/7. The episode ended with the bomb being detonated.
Of course “Spooks” has also featured both the US and Israeli secret service as the “baddies” too.
‘has featured both the US and Israeli secret service as the “baddies” too.’
We noticed.
[The Moderator: Some idle speculation deleted.]
[The Moderator: From my memory of that particular episode I don’t think that this assertion is correct, so I’ve deleted it. If you can prove you’re right, please re-post with evidence.]
“Of course “Spooks” has also featured both the US and Israeli secret service as the “baddies” too.”
Spooks usually shows the team being told to do something in the British national interest with which the left wing disagrees, the team siding with the left wing, not doing it, and somehow avoiding the sacking/prosecution that would be the actual outcome of such actions for a real security services employee. For me it ruined the whole series.
I’d disagree with Lord Tebbit about the BBC’s portrayal of Irish terrorism, at L
least as far as Radio 4 drama was concerned. It concentrated disproportionately on the nationalist community as the victims and the unionist/protestant community, in unholy alliance with the RUC, the Army and the security services as the perpetrators.
“- When someone finds a workable formula please let me know
“- Tell the truth.”
I don’t think that can be applied to works of fiction like Casualty. I think it might prove retarded and completely destroy the BBC’s entire entertainment output, especially things like Doctor Who and the Teletubbies.
And, erm, wasn’t your precious Undercover Mosque heavily edited to distort it in favour of the makers’ agenda, in the classic C4 Reality tradition?
No, it wasn’t. Where’s your evidence?
“And, erm, wasn’t your precious Undercover Mosque heavily edited to distort it in favour of the makers’ agenda, in the classic C4 Reality tradition?”
“The police said it, so it must be true” — another classic comedy-reversal-of-roles, now that the left are in charge.