Tag: Political Correctness

Midsomer Murders.


I have not been watching television programs, except for some news occasionally, for many years. My late wife however used to watch a great deal and whenever Midsomer Murders came on, she would get me to sit and watch with her. That was one program that I really liked to watch and I loved John Nettles as Barnaby. Since her death, I have not seen any episodes. Apart from the episodes being very entertaining, the names in them, including John Nettles and Barnaby had a typical English robustness about them.

It has however come to my notice that there is suddenly some controversy about the show with a co-producer being suspended.

The cause for the suspension appears to be perceived racism in a statement made by Brian True-May who believed that to get a dark coloured character in the episodes will not be quite right, given the locale and ambiance of Midsomer.

As an Anglophile, I believe that Mr. True-May is right and I am intrigued that this simple observation, which to me is logical, has resulted in his suspension. I think that this is political correctness at its most ridiculous.

If we take a similar situation in India, to plunk a Caucasian in one of our soaps on TV will be disaster. For instance can any of my readers think of the aptness of inserting a Caucasian role in a film like Peepli Live?

I can’t imagine even a character like Peter Sellers in any role in Midsomer Murders.

What is main stream UK thought on this silly non issue?

“Assasins Of The Mind.”

I have just read a chilling article by Christopher Hitchens in the Vanity Fair. Let me kindle your interest with how he concludes the article.

“Two decades on, Salman himself is thriving mightily and living again like a free man. But the culture that sustains him, and that he helps sustain, has twisted itself into a posture of prior restraint and self-censorship in which the grim, mad edict of a dead theocrat still exerts its chilling force. And, by the way, the next time that Khomeini’s lovely children want to make themselves felt, they will be armed not just with fatwas but with nuclear weapons.”

He uses the well known story of Salman Rushdie to illustrate what is happening in the name of political correctness and secularism.

I do not wish to add my two bits. The article is powerful enough to cause ordinary people to reflect.