Had to laugh at this story, seems that in the BBC worldview Friar Tuck, Robin Hood’s spiritual adviser, is a black martial arts expert! Hurrah for multiculti revisionism. But didn’t they miss a trick in not turning Robin of Sherwood into Robyn,a sexually-liberated feminist who teaches the rich that not only is wealth-redistribution essential but also that there is no place for chauvinism in Nottingham.
Hat-tip to All Seeing Eye for the story!
i cant believe they havent done that yet. not that i watch it so i wouldnt know
I propose that the role of Little John be played by Binyam Mohamed and the role of Maid Marion by a lesbian version of the Jaqui Smith’s husband.
Multiculti rubbish. Why not make Friar Tuck an atheist? About as relevant as “Can the black and white minstrels be all white?”
Since its reckoned about 6% of the population are from an ethnic minority, can Robin Hood be white but due to a mysterious condition Michael Jackson fans would recognise, his “manhood” black? That at least would be ethnically representative of the population, in terms of skin surface area. As well as going down well with Maid Marian.
The BBC are full of race-mingers obssessed with race and skin colour. Any half-competent psychiatrist (therefore Dolly excluded) would tell you they are themselves over-compensating closet racists.
Err… isn’t Robin Hood tosh though?
Merlin was gay
Miss Marple a pre op block of cheddar
James Bond a commie
How can revisionism of drivel still reduce the drivel? I got fed up with Costner and Flynn but….
what a load of politicaly correct bullshit. After 5 mins I was yearning for the days of Richard Green and that catchy theme tune.
Get with it beeboids – Friar Tuck is a big fat white bloke with a bald head and a fondness for a tankard of ale or 2
Wankers.
Is that repulsive little shit, Keith Allen still in this garbage?
I’ve never watched it, but from what I’ve heard it sounds like the worst sort of Al-Beeb multi-culti trash.
Sounds like that Merlin programme they had on (didn’t watch that either) where Guinevere was of mixed race.
They take the piss!
Gigits – Lily? Be honest.
Whatever next? Osama bin Laden as Friar Tuck? I wouldn’t put it past Al Beeb.
There are several old Robin Hood (Richard Green) episodes to be found on YouTube. The good old days! 🙂
Dick the Prick | 29.03.09 – 7:47 pm | #
I wouldn’t touch her with yours, mate! STDs are not at all nice!
Wear a double mac and a pair of galloshes.
Oops – dodgy name, soz.
When a programme is of such dire quality as Robin Hood does it really matter that a character is anachronistically coloured? They are not making an historically accurate programme but ‘entertainment’, so really, WGAFF?
It is at least more likely than there being an arabic female in the gang …
Oh, and you didn’t really expect them to portray a sympathetic Christian monk did you? Have you all been drinking?
I’d risk a case of Donovanosis (named so because the genital ulcers are as annoying as Jason Donovan) for a shot at motorboating Lily Allen. So what if half her DNA is identical to that wanker Keith Allen – they’ve got radiation that can take care of that.
Robert S. McNamara | 29.03.09 – 8:04 pm | #
You may be right. As long as you can stop her singing she should be ok. Can you think of something to put in her mouth?
That’s the Cuban missile crisis attitude we remember you for Bob.
What next from these tossers, Lenny Henry as Sherlock Holmes ??
Betty Swollocks | 29.03.09 – 8:16 pm | #
He’d be glad of the work now that Comic Relief season is over.
I wonder how many kids now think that there were black people in this country in the 5th (Merlin) and 12th (Robin Hood) centuries?
It may help social cohesion, but it does nothing for historical accuracy and education!
“Helen Phillips, Professor of English at Cardiff University and an expert in medieval literature, said: “Sub-Saharan Africans wouldn’t have been converted by that point, they would have had other religions. North Africans would have mostly been Muslims.
“Also, friars came from upper-class families, as did monks. The kind of families from which friars were drawn wouldn’t have been in any sense African.”
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article5989329.ece
No doubt the BBC will say that it is not supposed to be history but fantasy and they are probably right – but they seem to debunk any legend as long as its English. What next? Sir Gawain and the “Black” Knight.
From the Times link:
But why? Why should there be a “black character” in a period drama set at a time when these islands had not yet enjoyed the enrichment and vibrancy brought by Africans.
The previous didn’t paste properly.
Mel Brooks deliberately took the mickey out of the legend and numerous films with the comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
Trust the dear old Beeb, with no evident sense of irony, to go one better. I wonder how long before we witness Tuck and Little John high fiving and talking with an Ali G Jafakan accent? This organisation is beyond parody.
“The people need a hero, and that’s what Tuck very much wants: to stand behind a symbol of good.”
And that is the multicultural messsage.
Surely this is a remake of Mel Brooks, Robin Hood: Men in Tights(1993)? Dave Chappelle played Ahchoo, looking as uncomfortable as a Black Muslim in Medieval England as Christian Zionist in the BBC newsroom.
The inimitable Mel Brooks, wasn’t black to be sure but his role as Rabbi Tuckman was self explanatory.
If the BBC’s Maid Marion is anywhere as sexy as the practically nude (except for chastity belt and strategically placed hair) Amy Yasbeck I may even tune in.
Trust the dear old Beeb, with no evident sense of irony, to go one better.
Jeff | 29.03.09 – 8:30 pm
Jeff you beat me to it.
It’s obvious why the BBC add in anachronistic PC characters to these mythic tales. It’s also obvious that it is meant to be entertainment and doesn’t really matter, unless you object to seeing people would aren’t Lily Allen white on the box.
If this was a serious show then you’d all have a point but as it isn’t you don’t. So there. 🙂
Wasn’t Morgan Freeman in a Hollywood Robin Hood movie once? It is odd, I would like to know from a historian of the period whether there were actually black people in a position such as his in England at the time.
This does seem like one of those, ‘we can’t miss a chance to show you how great diversity is’ moments. The irony is, the more they force that at people, the more we start to oppose diversity because we link it to the do-gooders.
“If this was a serious show then you’d all have a point but as it isn’t you don’t.”
So the BBC are not deliberatly putting characters in historic settings where they never existed? No multiculural agenda here then? So todays kids will not mistake this programme for real history as they are so well educated.
“A recent Ofsted report worryingly noted that pupils’ knowledge and understanding of “key historical events” is not good enough, and that their knowledge is fragmented,
“patchy and specific; they are unable to sufficiently link…historical events…form overviews and demonstrate strong conceptual understanding.”
It also noted that their
“sense of chronology is…weak and they are generally unable to…relate to a longer narrative or story of the history of Britain”.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-03-04a.850.0
So seems like our kids will not be able to determine the fact from fantasy.
I blogged about this yesterday and it’s no laughing matter.
It’s very sinister actually.
‘But why should there be a “black character” in a period drama set at a time when these islands had not yet enjoyed the enrichment and vibrancy brought by Africans?’
Because it’s fits the Lefty narrative that Britain has swarmed with blacks since the earliest times, but they’ve been airbrushed out of history.
You know it makes sense.
Perhaps they will make him gay and go around saving rent boys in Sherwood Forest?
As several commenters have noted, the story of Robin Hood is fictional, but it is still supposed to have an authentic English medieval setting.
The BBC’s version is designed to impose their own leftist multi-cultural drivel onto the original historical background.
As such, the BBC’s version is not merely biased, it is fraudulent.
*shakeshead*
Gigits:
I wonder how many kids now think that there were black people in this country in the 5th (Merlin) and 12th (Robin Hood) centuries?
It may help social cohesion, but it does nothing for historical accuracy and education!
Gigits | 29.03.09 – 8:21
indeed. in the rush to rewrite history, they are overlooking some great characters – such as Septimus Severus. General, Governor and Roman Emperor. Died in York
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimus_Severus
And of North African Berber descent.
There is simply no need to do this – real history is far more interesting, nuanced and complicated.
White Briton slave trade to Africa anyone? Something the BBC wont tell the kids about – and which is why modern day Moroccan berbers have a streak of blond hair/blue hairs running through their gene pool.
(remember the false Moroccan spotting of Madeline McCann? Berber kid.)
ack.typo – “blond hair/blue eyes” i meant to say.
Myths and Legends shouldn’t be tampered with • they then cease to be myths and legends. If you want to undermine a culture, undo their myths and legends. It doesn’t really matter who plays the parts but the BBC stray deliberately from the myth/legend to try and score cheap political points, coupled with the apparent miscasting is doubly annoying.
· myths • stories traditionally considered true and sacred, set in the remote past, in another world or an earlier stage of this world, whose main characters are gods or otherwise non-human
· legends • stories traditionally considered true, set in the recent past of this world, whose main characters are human; these can be either sacred or secular
I wonder if the Greeks, Romans, Norwegians, Danes, Spanish (who also have a Merlin), French and other countries allow their myths and legends to be vilified and destroyed. Anyone know?
The BBC are malevolent
As archduke 29.03.09 – 10:57 pm points out there have been black people in Briton for ages. Not as many as now but I can’t think of anywhere in the Robin Hood cycles where it explicitly states what the colour of each of the merry men were, well apart from Will Scarlet.
So where’s the beef? Don’t like seeing coloured chaps on the TV eh?
FFS just think of the fuss you’d make if they were actually historical and ‘Robin’ was portrayed as Fulk le fitz Warene, a damn Frenchie.
“Wasn’t Morgan Freeman in a Hollywood Robin Hood movie once? It is odd, I would like to know from a historian of the period whether there were actually black people in a position such as his in England at the time.
Fat Face Penguin Seal | Homepage | 29.03.09 – 9:08 pm”
The Morgan Freeman character was a North African Moor called “Azeem”, whom Robin saves the life of when escaping from a dungeon in Jerusalem (Robin having being captured during the Third Crusade).
Azeem accompanies Robin back to England until the debt of saving his life is repaid.
So, that subplot is a bit of a creative flourish , but its certainly more historically believable than the BBC’s rewrite of Friar Tuck!
The Cattle Prod of Destiny | 29.03.09 – 11:17 pm
well the BBC is rewriting the legend.
Friar Tuck is a fat balding guy, who loves ale. What is the point of rewriting a legend that has existed for hundreds of years?
the maddening thing about this insertion of “multicult” bollocks into an English legend is that it isnt needed – there are some fascinating stories in British history that are ripe for dramatisation:
Septimus Severus – North African Roman general and emperor. Governor of Brittainia
The Polish pilots of WW2 Battle of Britain
The Gurkhas
The Sikhs that served in the British Army in WW1 and WW2
Lawrence of Arabia
The mass expulsion of ALL blacks and North Africans by Elizabeth the First (yup , it did happen. must have been horrific – and yet hardly known..)
theres plenty more to add to that…
The Cattle Prod of Destiny | 29.03.09 – 11:17 pm
You just don’t read anyone elses posts do you? In normal times the re-writing of an historical period just would not happen. Does any other nation do this – if so give me an example. Do the Greeks change their mythology to pander to the leftists elite?
Robin Hood is a legend and set in the Middle Ages – if the BBC want to produce fantasy then why not just make it up instead of using characters like Friar Tuck and Robin Hood.?
Robyn Ji-had
Robyn Ji-had
Protests at Luton
Robyn Ji-had
Robyn Ji-had
With his band of bBC men
Feared by the good, loved by the beeb,
Robyn Ji-had! Robyn JI had! Robyn ji- had!
He called the greatest Mullahs
To a Mosque on the green,
They vowed to help Osma defeat the Queen
They handled all the trouble
On the English country scene,
Robyn Ji-had! Robyn JI had! Robyn ji- had!
Binyam Mohamed
Binyam Mohamed
Protests on the bBC
Binyam Mohamed
Binyam Mohamed
With his band of Human rights men
Feared by the good, loved by the beeb,
Binyam Mohamed
Binyam Mohamed
As far as I’m concerned it’s yet another slap in the face of your average white Englishman. You’re not racist if you want Friar Tuck to be white and fat instead of a black kung fu guy. What’s next? A black Nelson? A black Churchill? Why not write real fiction instead? Just leave the old tales alone. FFS.
Pounce: Brilliant, my friend! 🙂
archduke | 29.03.09 – 11:37 pm |
Couldn’t agree more, mate.
Susan Franklin | 29.03.09 – 11:13 pm |
Hmm Robin Hood as a fox maybe?
Is it really villification to have a black character in the show?
I certainly agree with the way they screw up the cycle and deliberately try to smash English cultural icons. But sticking in a black chap doesn’t do that, unless one has some rather unpleasent views that is.
Jon | 29.03.09 – 9:24 pm |
So the BBC are not deliberatly putting characters in historic settings … Yes of course they are.
…where they never existed? Really, sure of that are you?
No multiculural agenda here then? It’s a full frontal agenda with apologies for absence, AoB and everything. They put blacks or asians into crap like this because they have the bizarre idea that if they weren’t there blacks and/or asians wouldn’t watch. They, mistakenly IMHO, believe that people are only capable of identifying with others of the same skin colour as themselves …
So todays kids will not mistake this programme for real history as they are so well educated. If they are truely that thick what hope is there for them anyway? You don’t have to be mastermind to see through this schlock. Nor do you need to be Trevor Phillips to see the main reason why people object to this character.
Oh, and don’t forget this all started on ITV with the Nazir character in ‘Robin of Sherwood.’ Were they being PC or out to destroy a cultural icon too?
And… a lot of white people happen to love Bollywood movies (me excluded – I’m past my musical phase). It simply is great to have diversity on a global scale, not multicultural crap focussed on one country! Try humming a tune in Saudi Arabia.
They, mistakenly IMHO, believe that people are only capable of identifying with others of the same skin colour as themselves …
The Cattle Prod of Destiny | 29.03.09 – 11:47 pm |
Great thought that… if that’s not racism I don’t know what is. I was most certainly rooting (excuse the pun) for Kunta Kinte in “Roots” (for those old enough to remember.