BBC News - All-white Midsomer Murders defended by creator True-May

This has to be the biggest load of nonsense the PC brigade has come up with in a very long time.  Midsomer Murders is the product of the writer’s and producer’s imaginations. Insisting on ethnic minorities being “represented” in the show is rather like insisting landscape artists put more people in their paintings, that historical novelists tackle more contemporary issues, or that rap artists sing more ballads.

Midsomer Murders represents archetypal English village life as conceived by the writer. That world doesn’t actually exist, or at least we all hope so since this sleepy village has witnessed 251 deaths since 1997. There are no ethnics in the Vicar of Dibley, Last of the Summer Wine ran for almost forty years with an all-white cast.

Asking why there are no ethnic minorities in Midsomer Murders is rather like asking why the majority of people in The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency are black. The great majority of people in Africa are not white just as the great majority of people in the UK are white. There are almost 3 million Welsh people in the UK so should the Welsh insist they are better represented in Eastenders, or maybe the Geordies should complain that they are under-represented in the Welsh language drama Pobol Y Cwm (People of the valley).

Some people seem to spend their lives skulking around our world looking for things to complain about. They want to be offended in almost a Munchausen Syndrome like attention-seeking mania. Maybe that is the answer. Well, some people are put in this world as a warning to the rest and it seems to me that this is a classic example.

BBC News - All-white Midsomer Murders defended by creator True-May

BBC NEWS | Business | Troubled ITV cuts jobs and costs

With what barely disguised glee the BBC reported the problems at ITV this week.  Seems to me they have little to feel smug about since most TV is not worth saving, what with all the reality TV garbage, the production line soaps and endless rows of talking heads vying with each other for air time to tell us where we are all going wrong; why your souffle's go flat, why your children go off the rails, why you can't sell your house and how to make the best of staying where you are.

Meanwhile entertainers who have spent years honing their skills and developing their acts and who used to be seen on our screens regularly are working on cruise ships and at private functions. I actually saw a poll this week asking people which "entertainer" from a list of about eight was their favourite. Jade Goody was on the list! Now she is a lot of things and deserves our sympathies but an entertainer she is not. I think  BBCiPlayer should change its slogan:

"Making the missable unavoidable"

Do yourself a favour - buy a radio.

BBC NEWS | Business | Troubled ITV cuts jobs and costs