Press Association, Tuesday March 15 2011
The producer of long-running TV hit Midsomer Murders has been
suspended after sparking a row when he claimed part of the show's
appeal was an absence of ethnic minorities.
Brian True-May has been suspended by production company All3Media
pending an internal investigation. He told Radio Times the ITV1
programmes "wouldn't work" if there was any racial diversity in the
village life.
An ITV spokesman said: "We are shocked and appalled at these personal
comments by Brian True-May which are absolutely not shared by anyone
at ITV. We are in urgent discussions with All3Media, the producer of
Midsomer Murders, who have informed us that they have launched an
immediate investigation into the matter and have suspended Mr True-May
pending the outcome."
True-May, the drama's co-creator who has been with it since day one,
said: "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it
wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work.
"Suddenly we might be in Slough. Ironically, Causton (one of the main
centres of population in the show) is supposed to be Slough. And if
you went into Slough you wouldn't see a white face there."
"We're the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that
way," he added.
Midsomer Murders, based on the books by Caroline Graham, was launched
in 1997 and has featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murders. It has
run for 14 series.
But True-May said he has not previously been tackled about the
programme's failure to reflect "cosmopolitan" society.
"It's not British, it's very English. We are a cosmopolitan society in
this country, but if you watch Midsomer you wouldn't think so. I've
never been picked up on that, but quite honestly I wouldn't want to
change it," he said.
True-May has also banned swearing, violence and sex scenes from the
show but his idyllic formula does not stop challenging storylines, or
other elements of diversity which do not involve ethnicity. "If it's
incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality... terrific, put it in,
because people can believe that people can murder for any of those
reasons," he told Radio Times.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2011, All Rights Reserved.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011
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