Destroy-Deny-Degrade-Disrupt, living up to his name perhaps, says in the comments that….
‘I don’t rely on Alan to think for me, nor speak for me’
Uhhh…OK…I’ll fold my tent and bugger off to the desert to read the Koran and play with my harem before coming back to separate DDDD from his head….or…..or I could just write a long whinge to the Guardian about how unloved I am and how everybody should be forced by law to appreciate just what a bleeding genius I am…..oh shit, look, someone’s beaten me to it…..the evil right-wing Press have been force feeding children Mein Kampf and it’s just not on you know!….
Line of Duty creator hits back at ‘weak and bullying’ critics of BBC
The creator of Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio, has launched a passionate defence of the BBC before the return of his acclaimed police corruption drama to BBC2 this month.
“I think we all know there’s an anti-BBC agenda in certain areas of the press,” says Mercurio. “Sometimes it’s just boring in its inevitability and then every now and then it really crosses a line. I think comments about The Great British Bake Off – the chocolate mosque comments – really crossed a line and I think that comments about London Spy have crossed a line.
Yep…The Mail’s [What not the Mail!!!] Amanda Platell is the voice of the Devil as she disembowels the BBC with her satanic discourse…
Poor Flora wasn’t PC enough for Beeb
When this series of The Great British Bake Off began, the BBC was proud it was the most inclusive, multi-cultural line-up ever.
Now we’re down to the final three, it’s certainly a PC triumph. We are left with Muslim mum Nadiya Hussain, gay doctor Tamal Ray, and New Man Ian Cumming. Poor Flora Shedden never stood a chance. She was far too middle class — and was booted off this week after her chocolate carousel was deemed sub-standard.
Perhaps if she’d made a chocolate mosque, she’d have stood a better chance.
Or she could just be making a salient and truthful observation of fact.
Mercurio attacks the Telegraph for criticising his adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover…and yet the article was in fact praising another BBC programme….
Another week, another classic about illicit spooning at the dawn of the 20th century. Where the BBC’s fresh take on Lady Chatterley’s Lover hollowed out the original and injected its own up-to-date agitprop, The Go-Between (BBC One) kept faith with LP Hartley’s devastating story of love denied. This was what creative fidelity is meant to look like.
So is Mercurio’s whinge more about him and his ‘art’ than defending the BBC? The Guardian itself admits that Mercurio has chopped and changed the story to heighten the ‘agitprop’….
Mercurio has done that – added bits here, borrowed there, taken plenty away. No doubt people will be cross…….The accident at the mine provides a dramatic opening and is powerful and exciting even on a small screen budget, as well as quickly getting to ideas of injustice and social conflict.
The well known right-wing rag, The New Statesmen, says…
In Mercurio’s hands, the narrative was – quite a rare feat, this – at once clichéd and anachronistic.
How about WalesOnline?…
This offering of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by the BBC seemed intent on trying to avoid offending anyone, but it ends up being offensive in its treatment of the classic novel
Sexy? Not really. Poignant? Nah. Good? Oh no.
Mercurio goes on to say that criticism of his show ‘Cardiac Arrest’ was political…and yet he admits that the programme was ‘a pretty controversial piece’.….
I certainly know that when I did [the 90s medical drama] Cardiac Arrest, which was a pretty controversial piece, there was a lot of negative coverage in the Daily Mail and the Daily Express. The rightwing press really slagged it off and that was a political decision, nothing to do with the artistic quality of the programme.
He quotes nothing from the Mail or the Express to illustrate his claim…and no proof that such negative coverage was ‘political’….. were the left-wing press being ‘political’ in their praise this being the early 90’s and a Tory government in charge of the NHS…wouldn’t the left delight in a production from the BBC that paints the NHS as falling apart?
Only positive, ego stroking criticism in future for the sensitive and clever Mr Mercurio please!
Still, another bit of pro-BBC agitprop to chalk up for Lord Hall Hall’s campaign.
F*****g hell! ISWYDT
I am grateful, though, Alan. For the space you and David provide me with to vent. Disrespectful, and spiteful, but not ungrateful. 😉
Alan,
If I recall correctly, DDDD’S comment was in response to the resident troll. His point being about the left’s inability to think for itself whereas he formed his own opinion based on experience.
It was actually a compliment.
Keep up the good work, it is genuinely appreciated.
SJ
Excellent point.
Misunderstandings are not unusual on blog/comment websites and I can see why Alan read it as he did (because I read it the same way).
I, too, read the original quote as meaning that DDDD was a freethinker and not dependent on others to define his opinion.
I certainly didn’t read it as meaning that Alan’s opinion wasn’t worth hearing.
My next thought was that, perhaps, Alan was being ironic, at which point I decided it was all to clever for me and that I would read something else!
You’re right, Alan was being completely ironic, pretending to be upset that someone on here is able to think for themselves and doesn’t need to mimic his opinions. It was a good dig at the Beeboids who come here, under all sorts of aliases, but who are totally predictable in their “thoughts” and comments, almost if they are told what to believe and say, and unable to think for themselves.
This air of infallibility does seem to pervade the whole of the BBC. Mercurio’s fragile ego and his rant at “the right-wing press” is really rather silly, but it does demonstrate a point. I personally was appalled at the colossal sum of money spent on turning “War and Peace” into Downton Abbey. That isn’t political. I just happen to care about Russian literature.
But there is something much more sinister going on here. Say for example, a criticism was made of the BBC from a politically right-wing perspective. Are the BBC saying that this is invalid – not allowed? If this is the case then the BBC’s bias towards the left is confirmed.
Clearly my jokes are crap…maybe I can get a job writing Stewart Lee’s 5th series for the BBC.
I’m not Boris Johnson or David Cameron, feel free to take a different opinion…..DDDD was merely my comedy vehicle to link to Mercurio’s sense of entitlement that no-one should criticise him and his beloved BBC.
Did think DDDD understood the target…..once I’d googled ISWYDT.
Apologies for any confusion….and as David frequently reminds us it is the comments below the line that really add to this site not my own singular take on events.
Alan:
“Did think DDDD understood the target…..once I’d googled ISWYDT.”
Yup, exactly. Awful nerdy acronym that, though. I do apologise!
Mercurio?
What kind of name is THAT?
Sounds like some poncey prance who the Bard forgot to ask to collect groats and ducats at the Globe.
I myself see this site as something like the Waltons house with a football pitch outside, and a nearby agora so we can get on our soapboxes to sound off.
A joy to pop in and say hello…always is.
Poor Jerrod playing pocket billiards in a sorry corner of the floodlit pitch, but with the hope that he`ll be able to join in the assorted ball sports happening all around Alans arboreum!
With Mr Vance the avuncular squire of the manor who smiles benignly upon us all.