Is The Bbc's Director Of Television, Being Paranoid Regarding Skin Colour?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570639/Match-Of-The-Day-panel-white-needs-diverse-BBC-says.html

[whiskeryron]

Madness, every job should be applied on merit & the ability to do the work successfully whether one is black,white,green or any other colour, it's all getting totally out of hand.

[douglas9401]

Not paranoid, right on and desperate to please with tokenism in the guise of diversity. Another dinner table discussion growing into policy.

[Peter Pedant]

too white and too middleclass,

one of the Equality Acts demands that you ethnically monitor ( i e record results )but does NOT stipulate that you have to act.

seems a spin off from that....

What we need is a few shaven head tattoos sharpening up the chatter on match of the day with comments like:
Ah fink the scots can f+ off back over the borda - and that is only the footie team !

he will get a lot of votes if he does

[FredPuli43]

Yes, in short. There's no evidence that there was some inbuilt tendency to prefer white presenters on Match of the Day. Other channels have some black ex-players; it is just a question of personality and how good they are at getting points across, whether they get the job.

[Everhelpful]

Well said,Steve,they get on my t!ts as well,what qualifications have they actually got,all you need is the ability to talk bullsh!t.!!

[anotheoldgit]

/// Speaking at a separate event, drama controller Ben Stephenson said he wants more black and gay actors on TV in a bid to ‘reflect Britain as it really
is’. ///

Since the Asian population in the UK is over double to that of the black population, perhaps it should be that we need more Asian actors to ‘reflect Britain as it really is’?

Regarding gay actors, since there are many gay people in the acting profession I would have thought that would have taken care of any presumed imbalance there?

[sunny-dave]

Oh Good Grief - they'll be insisting on straight hairdressers next and as for Campanologists ...

[Baldric]

I think they have to be seen ^^^ to be Gay aog or it doesn't count!

[emmie]

next thing you know women will be presenting sports programme, oh hum

[emmie]

sunny-dave, that rings a bell.

[anotheoldgit]

Baldric

/// I think they have to be seen ^^^ to be Gay aog or it doesn't count! ///

We already have two openly gay chat show hosts so perhaps we should have some straight ones for a change?

Bring back Wogan and Parkinson,

[emmie]

Parkinson is coming back, not sure if it's on Sky but don't think it's a mainstream channel. The only reason i don't like Alan Carr, Graham Norton, is because i don't find them funny, no more than Mrs Browns boys, a load of claptrap that is,

[sp1814]

AOG

Gay people are under-represented on British television. But I don't think it's a major issue...because openly gay people (actors, presenters, punters, commentators) are gaining more and more visibility on tv.

This may be a combination of new younger producers realising that the majority of viewers (especially younger viewers) are more accepting of LGBT talent.

[sp1814]

I should add 'under-represented in my opinion'.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Gay people are under-represented on British television. ///

How can you possibly know that, unless they are openly gay there is no way of knowing?

I personally think that they are over represented in TV soaps, because they are appearing even more frequently in most of the popular one's,there is no need whatsoever to put in your 'token' black person, gay, or Lesbian.

If we go down this track, will there will come a time when they have to introduce Chinese, Arabs, (or any other distinguishable race), cross dressers, Atheist, Catholic, Jew, Muslim etc etc. all in the name of equality or whatever.

[sandyRoe]

You don't see many bald presenters on the TV. Is baldism the last acceptable prejudice?

[sp1814]

AOG

Are you narrowing the field to soap operas? That's different to television, which encompasses many different formats (news, sport, drama, soaps, comedy, film etc).

I don't watch soaps, but if know that as of last year, there were 77 lead characters featured in Coronation Street which is set in Manchester. If someone could help out here - are there three or four gay characters in Manchester?

I know the Manchester quite well, and if if there are indeed three or four gay characters in the show, then that would not be a reflection on the place I know.

But then again - should it really matter? As long as the storylines are good, then people will watch the show. Apparently the storyline about Danny Dyer's fictional son coming out to him garnered much positive feedback online...well, except for the trolls, whom Mr a Dyer shot down with a rather magnificent Twitter riposte...automatically making me forgive him some of his past transgressions.

[sp1814]

AOG

You wrote:

"If we go down this track, will there will come a time when they have to introduce Chinese, Arabs, (or any other distinguishable race), cross dressers, Atheist, Catholic, Jew, Muslim etc etc. all in the name of equality or whatever."

What's the problem with that? As long as they have strong storylines, i suspect that most people wouldn't care a hoot.

Just like people enjoyed the film Notting Hill, which is set in a culturally diverse urban area...the film was a massive success despite the screen being absent of anyone but white people.

The big soaps are set in urban areas, and they reflect the cultural mix that you see in real life.

If you wish to watch exclusively white shows, you could always stick with Midsomer Murders, Marple and reruns of Last Of The Summer Wine and Poirot.

I would add that there's a black character on Downton, so that might be out of the running for you - but you could always close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears and hum 'Land of Hope and a Glory' when his scenes are on...

[joeluke]

sp.......'Gay people are under-represented on British television'

Many high profile presenters on TV are of that persuasion

Graham Norton, Dale Winton, Julian Clary, Paul O'Grady, Simon Amstell, Alan Carr, Brian Dowling, etc etc

I'd say that (as a minority group) gays are pretty well represented there, wouldn't you?

In fact I'd actually say over-represented