This Merry England

 We have had some interesting debate recently about what it means to be English. As Britain is made up of four countries in one (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) we have a bit of an identity problem. A bit like a four way schizophrenic. This does have its benefits, an excuse to drink ourself into oblivion- St Patrick's day, Hogmaney, St George's day and whatever the Welsh celebrate and drink to (mostly to forget that they live in Wales!).
 However due to our welcoming immigration laws we seem to have adopted more cultures into our own. Some feel threatened that we are being "diluted"  and other question their national identity, all to the detriment of in this case, being English. We have what we call "National Institutions" Cricket, Warm Beer, Best Kept Village competitions, Stiff Upper Lip kind of stuff,  middle class predominantly white, all very genteel. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this at all, in fact its idyllic. A whole industry has grown up around  the desire for a country life, as well as a dearth of second rate t.v programs.
 There is one such program that has recently cause a storm, albeit in a bone china tea cup, about the inclusion of Black and Asian  characters in a popular Sunday evening program called "Midsummer Murders".  The premise of the show is that its set in a fictional (very important) village populated by such people as "The Colonel" and "Ms Sourtits" the spinster, "Mr Givinitaway" the antique dealer and "Johnson" the gardener, all very upstanding citizens from somewhere c. 1950. Until recently I thought it was set in "the olden days" but apparently its not. The writer of the show made comment that he didn't want to include any Black or Asian characters as it would spoil the feel or the "Englishness" of the program. This resulted in claim and counter-claim of racism and political correctness going too far.
 As a work of fiction then its up to the writer to construct a story populated with characters from his or her imagination, so if Mr True-May , the writer of Midsummer Murders wants to portray his fictional village in this way then its up to him. This does not make him racist, its up to him to decide who and what appears in his story, if you don't like it or cant relate then don't watch, simple.

 However there has been reports of a new film that takes a character that was clearly described and written in such a way to create a persona that has been changed to such a degree that she is no longer recognisable in the efforts to "Sex" her up.

 From This

To This

Not actual film footage....sorry.

 Now, when Agatha Christie wrote her series of books about the adventures of Miss Marple she was a little old lady who everyone thought of a s a bit of a busy body but quite harmless only to be exposed by her rapier mind and powers of deduction. Not once did they look at her and go "Phwoar I'd give her one", unless of course they were a bit kinky that way. The casting of Jenifer Garner as sweet old Miss Marple is just wrong!! Yes Miss Marple is very "English", she doesn't work as young, American, Black, Asian and certainly not SEXY.(apologies to Joan Hickson, I am sure you were very fine in your prime). (just googled young Joan Hickson and I take that last comment back...sorry).

 It seems in the quest to become more Tolerant we have crossed the line between fact and fiction. 

What Next?

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Oh No, No, No!