You’re not English!

Midsomer Murders, famous for featuring Hollywood hitter, Orlando Bloom, before his time in the sun. Now it’s getting attention for the people that haven’t been seen in the show. In an interview with the Radio Times, Brian True-May, the producer of the show made the following comments:

“We just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It just wouldn’t work… Suddenly we might be in Slough. And if you went into Slough you wouldn’t see a white face there… We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way”

There are so many things wrong with his statements that I don’t even know where to start. First of all why should Englishness be defined by a lack of ethnic minorities? There are plenty of people who consider themselves English, despite the fact that their parents or grandparents have come from countries far and exotic.

Secondly, you could argue that there aren’t many black faces in small English villages, but that doesn’t mean that there are none; and it definitely doesn’t mean that by depicting them, you take away from veracity of portraying an English village. I mean, how many real English villages do you know where so many people get gruesomely anyway? 

Thirdly, yes, Slough is a heavily Asian area, but to say that ‘you wouldn’t see a white face there’ is absolutely ridiculous.

True-May was initially suspended for his comments, but is back now to see the show to the end of the series. So, just in case you’ve been dying to appear in an episode, here are some tips on how to be an Anglophile from an American friend.

Have a listen to this debate about it on Radio 4. What do you think, should someone with such archaic views be producing media content?