BBC drama, something I rarely watch, does seem (from comments I keep reading on various sites) to be an area of the BBC's output where the bias is especially blatant, and where certain kinds of messages keep getting pushed, often not very discreetly.
This week's episode of Doctor Who, for example (the one BBC drama I usually do watch - and which is very much back on form again), was intended by its 'showrunner' Steven Moffat to deal with the issues of racism and the "whitewashing" of history, and to do so by "bending history". As Mr Moffat put it himself, quite openly:
This week's episode of Doctor Who, for example (the one BBC drama I usually do watch - and which is very much back on form again), was intended by its 'showrunner' Steven Moffat to deal with the issues of racism and the "whitewashing" of history, and to do so by "bending history". As Mr Moffat put it himself, quite openly:
History is always whitewashed. How do we manage to have a diverse cast despite that? The way that we did it was … [to just] say that you will see people of different colours there. In fact, there were. People all didn’t arrive in the twinkle of an eye. It is bending history slightly, but in a progressive and useful way.
"Bending things in a progressive and useful way!" could be the BBC's new slogan, couldn't it?
The episode was set in 1814 in London, and this was an early bit of dialogue:
Bill: Wait, you want to go out there?That is certainly "bending history slightly". It ignores some quite significant things in British history. The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act had been passed in 1807, abolishing slave trading in the British Empire. Patrols were sent to the African coast to arrest slaving vessels and captains were fined £120 for every slave transported. The West Africa Squadron, part of the Royal Navy, was established to suppress slave trading. By 1811, three years before the Doctor and Bill landed in London, slave trading was made a felony punishable by transportation for both British subjects and foreigners. So slavery was not "still totally a thing" in 1814's London, and this seems to have been "bending history" more than just "slightly"....
The Doctor: You don't?
Bill: It's 1814...[Pointing to her face] Melanin. Yes? Slavery is still totally a thing.
The Doctor (sadly): Yes, it is.
Bill: It might be, like, dangerous out there.
The Doctor: Definitely dangerous.
....but as the programme was doubtless also doing so "in a progressive and useful way", who cares if it's not entirely true and something of a slur on our country's history? Certainly not too many at the BBC I'd guess.
For the first time in my life, I haven't watched Dr. Who since the middle of the last series. Too overtly political, and I've had it.
ReplyDeleteI gave up midway through the last series (like you, for the first time ever) but gave it another try this series.
DeleteMaybe Steven Moffat's departure at the end of series will lead to less politics. (A triumph of hope over experience?)
When did a change of executive producer ever lead to less political bias in Dr. Who? Before Moffatt was R.T. Davies, he of the Belgrano Lie scene. Before the long hiatus it was the Sylvester McCoy years, where the producers were well known to infuse the stories with Thatcher hatred. Before that, etc., etc.
DeleteIt wasn't as in-your-face with any of them like it has been with Moffat for the last two years.
Imagine this storyline for a moment..
ReplyDeleteThe Tardis lands in a marketplace somewhere in Africa or the Middle East.
Bill: Wait, you want to go out there?
The Doctor: You don't?
Bill: It's 2017... I'm human, Yes? Slavery is still totally a thing.
The Doctor (sadly): Yes, it is.
Bill: It might be, like, dangerous out there.
The Doctor: Definitely dangerous.
I look forward to watching this future episode, next week perhaps??
There are rumours that the Cybermen will be back later in the series and that the Doctor and Bill will encounter a transgender Cyberman - or 'Cyber' as she prefers to think of herself. All the cisgender Cybermen, of course, aren't at all happy about the situation and want to 'delete' her, but the Doctor saves the day and 'Gloria' (as she chooses to be called) stomps her silver-booted way into the sunset (after first 'deleting' Dame Jenni Murray and Germaine Greer).
DeleteThat's much more likely to happen.
There wouldn't have been slaves in Great Britain anyway. There hadn't been for centuries so the Dr. Who wasn't just bending the truth, they were telling blatant porkies.
ReplyDeleteBut Moffatt was only trying to start a conversation, increase awareness, as there was still waaaaycism in Britain then and slavery elsewhere. So, as ever with the BBC when it comes to these things, it's 'fake, but accurate'.
DeleteWe all know the relevant quote but it's very apposite for the BBC here ...
ReplyDelete"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."