tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post9062688154196240947..comments2024-03-26T10:03:51.827+13:00Comments on Karl du Fresne: When TV drama is used to promote messages of diversity and inclusivityKarl du Fresnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-54967839341668090472018-11-20T17:13:40.660+13:002018-11-20T17:13:40.660+13:00I am half-way through "Bodyguard" and am...I am half-way through "Bodyguard" and am enjoying it so far. The casting of women in so many key roles does seem quite artificial and politically proscribed. <br />I agree it is sad how the BBC seems to be caving-in to identity politics pressures. The UK in general is much further down the PC path than NZ. It is coming our way though. khrusthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07205236386273808326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-89834984384153217262018-11-19T11:47:03.676+13:002018-11-19T11:47:03.676+13:00David,
Thanks for that revealing insight into the ...David,<br />Thanks for that revealing insight into the current iteration of Doctor Who. Things are worse than I thought.Karl du Fresnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05054853925940134404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-50628517775032155472018-11-18T12:15:44.610+13:002018-11-18T12:15:44.610+13:00The new series of Doctor Who feels like it is an e...The new series of Doctor Who feels like it is an exercise in ticking boxes, with all the right characters of the right genders and ethnicities, and scripts so worthy and moralising they are cringe-inducing.<br /><br />I am not at all talking about Jodie Whittaker being in the title role. I have loved Jodie since first seeing her in Broadchurch and was looking forward immensely to seeing her in Doctor Who, a show I have followed since I was a kid and which I have on DVD right back to the first episode, screened on BBC1 on November 23 1963, the day JFK was shot. There have been several woman time lords (such as Romana, and the Rani, and of course, Susan, the first doctor's granddaughter) and even a time lord who has regenerated from man to woman (the Master became Missie). So having a woman doctor is not an issue in the canon of the series, the way it would be if the next James Bond is a woman, for example.<br /><br />It is the scripts which have become almost execrable in their attempts to lecture us. The worst so far has been Rosa, where the Tardis went back to Montgomery Alabama in 1955 to ensure there were enough white folk on the bus to ensure the driver ordered Rosa Parks to stand up. The episode was ridden with lengthy lectures on the evils of white racism.<br /><br />Having had a deep interest in the American Civil Rights movement since my university days, I was frankly appalled that the BBC could run a storyline where Rosa Parks only got to stay seated because a white woman from Yorkshire got on the bus deliberately at the right moment so Rosa could be told to stand. It made what Rosa so deliberately did (as an activist in the NAACP) appear accidental and needing a white person's help to ensure the event happened.<br /><br />Earlier Doctor Who storylines tackled these issues without the cringing worthiness of the present series (which has also devoted a whole episode to trashing Trump, and which featured a contrived Hindu-Muslim wedding at India's actual moment of independence on the then-new India-Pakistan border, courtesy of Doctor Jodie and her box-ticking companions -- one an older white dude, one black dude [with a disability, and step-grandson of the white dude] and one young Indian Muslim policewoman). <br /><br />For example, 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks was set in 1963 at the Coal Hill School of the very first story (it was the 25th anniversary). Companion Ace befriended a young man there and went to his house, where his mother took in borders. Ace winced as she saw the "no coloureds" sign in the window, and that was all it needed to make a powerful point.<br /><br />That 1988 storyline reminded me then and still does of how society was until the 1971 Race Relations Act. Newspaper ads for flats and houses to let almost always said "no Maoris or Islanders," something I found shocking when I first became aware of them when I started at the Herald as a cadet in 1977 and saw some of them in the files; and something I still find shocking today. But I don't need to lecture anyone in 2018 on why they were so dreadful in the 1950s and 1960s and even 1971.<br /><br /><br />Anyway, rant over. I don't have Netflix so I haven't seen Bodyguard. I usually watch a DVD from my huge collection if I want to watch the big screen in the corner, but there are some quality dramas (and documentaries) sneaking in to TVNZ On Demand. I recommend The Little Drummer Girl (BBC), available here an hour after it screens in the UK (Sundays, UK, Mondays here) and up to part three now; and some fascinating historical series like Tales of the City (1993, Channel 4 UK) set in San Francisco of 1976 and so daring that PBS only showed the first series, with many scenes cut or pixilated, and didn't risk showing the later ones. Oh, and Doctor Who's latest episode is on On Demand from Mondays from about 8.30am, after its screening in the UK at about 7.30pm Sundays.David McLoughlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07572242600889192661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-8405860004860603262018-11-18T12:15:24.630+13:002018-11-18T12:15:24.630+13:00Hear you. Am watching Bodyguard but it got a bit ...Hear you. Am watching Bodyguard but it got a bit lame once the 'attraction' took hold & the way the shooting went down stretched credulity bigtime. Hmm..Hilary Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00240590567749247083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8442430064359197279.post-31782622018925339172018-11-17T17:46:53.098+13:002018-11-17T17:46:53.098+13:00Thoroughly enjoyable reading - no it wasn’t. What ...Thoroughly enjoyable reading - no it wasn’t. What the Netflix movie (I haven’t seen it) did was to go out of its way to emasculate males, to put us in our place, as it were, driving home the contention that women can not only do as well as men in traditionally male-dominated scenarios - and why not - but that they can dominate and overrule. Good grief, have they not visited their local libraries, schools and social service centres? Barely a bloke male to be found! Spare us from movie producers doubling as social engineers.hughvanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13655840089502084282noreply@blogger.com