Question Author
andy-hughes
/// How long before we are back to black actors only playing the hired help, and rolling their eyes and saying 'Yes massah ...'. ///
I think that that is being far too over dramatic on your part Andy, ever thought of taking to the stage? No one is saying it would revert back to those times, it is the fact now that they are being introduced in many roles just as a token statement, and when they are they never tend to play the bad guy, if it is a reflection of the world we live in (as you put) then perhaps they should indeed play the bad guy occasionally.
Recently they cast a solitary black character into Midsomer Murders, he stuck out like a sore thumb, there was no reason to include him in the cast, except as a token gesture, but it at least narrowed the field of suspects down, because he could be eliminated as the killer from the outset.
The UK TV soaps have embraced ethnic and disabled and homosexual characters for a while now, because it is a reflection of the world we live in.
I perceive that Mr Oyelowo is looking for an extention of that mind-set.
Not a wholesale takeover of all dramas by black actors, but something more of a balance of role allocation within television and film.