I wouldn’t be against this backlash against colour-blind casting except it only ever feels like applies when a black person plays a “white” role.
When was the last time you saw a furore over a white person playing Jesus though? Probably never.
jungleboy1234 on
Hope they follow suit. I stopped watching stuff post 00s era for a myriad of other reasons, this recent colour blindness and depicting history as being different etc e.g filming different ethnicities in places they would have been minorities in positions of power where they were absent of power just adds to that.
I like things portrayed accurately so i better understand how things were in history so that we dont go repeating it…
[deleted] on
[deleted]
tHrow4Way997 on
So I notice a lot of nitpicking directed towards the BBC like this, aiming to stamp out “liberal bias”. But what you never see from the board of directors is nitpicking in the opposite direction, to tackle conservative bias. Funny that.
Weak-Fly-6540 on
Headline is a bit misleading.
Yonder said that when on-screen diversity missed the mark, it could “drive people away” from the BBC. “Representation alone was not enough – people also expected deep and nuanced portrayal,” it added.
[deleted] on
[removed]
NoTitleChamp on
You can tell who didn’t read the article before commenting.
Old_Hamster1264 on
Completely rewriting history, i saw a BBC advert around Christmas that had African vikings on one of their programs 🤣
[deleted] on
[removed]
Demostravius4 on
Colour*
Yes please. King and Conqueror having a middle eastern fellow as the Earl of Merica was just wierd. It’s also suspiciously only ever colour blind one way..
Not a lot of anti-colonial storylines with Shaka Zulu played by a white bloke.
[deleted] on
[removed]
[deleted] on
[removed]
Battle_Biscuits on
I’m a bit sceptical the BBC will take these recommendations on board but it would be nice to be proven wrong.
As someone who is very into history, I find a lot of historical television series (E.g, Vikings, Last Kingdom) difficult to watch because of the jarring inaccuracies.
Sometimes I can look past Vikings dressed like biker gang members, the “schinging” sound of drawn swords, or plainly dressed nobles in drab grey castles, but it’s especially hard not to see Sub-Saharan Africans in pre colonial era Europe as being especially jarring.
LOTDT on
> “In depicting an anachronistic historical world in which people of colour are able to rise to the top of society as scientists, artists, courtiers and Lords of the Realm, there may be the unintended consequence of erasing the past exclusion and oppression of ethnic minorities and breeding complacency about their former opportunities,” the review said.
Sorry to disappoint the anti-woke brigade, but this is more “wokeness.”
[deleted] on
[removed]
[deleted] on
[removed]
Katharinemaddison on
No new adaptions of passage to India then I suppose.
Regular_Promise3605 on
The thing i find about forcing diversity into casting is that a casting director at some point has taken race into account, and that defeats the whole point. Gaslighting people as racist for pointing that out is not the move either.
[deleted] on
[removed]
anybloodythingwilldo on
Colour blind casting has a place, but sometimes I just want to see a period drama be as authentic as possible. I find it harder to be drawn in when the casting is so completely random. It didn’t make sense to suddenly do colour blind casting for the second series of Wolf Hall, when they hadn’t for the first. It seems at the moment that an increasing number of period dramas are using colour blind casting. I genuinely think we risk painting a false picture of our history.
Also, make period dramas about real ethnic minority people.
PositiveLibrary7032 on
So we aren’t getting Dick Turpin as a progressive lesbian pistol wielding, they/them/her/it/asian/African/east asian/asylum seeker/male presenting/vegan/woman of power then? I’m gutted /s
FloydEGag on
Another interesting thread in that report, that isn’t as headline-grabbing, is its recommendation to focus more on diversity of class and region. As well as including more Asians (South, Southeast and East) and Eastern Europeans. That last one made me realise that actually there are barely any Eastern Europeans on TV; there were a couple of characters from Poland and Hungary in the drama series Capital about 12 years ago but I can’t think of any others
Slight-Individual-65 on
I worked on a tv drama set in 16th century England, and they went a bit mad with it. To me the worst of the casting was having Japanese people as regular supporting cast, I’m not even sure if we had met Japanese people or knew they existed until 100 years after .
EmuAppropriate3495 on
this is bullshit
most brits had rotten teeth and were 5’ 3 200 years ago. i don’t see people kicking up a fuss about a hot man with a pearly denture playing an old lord.
what if race is just not an important trait of people’s character? physical resemblance is just not that relevant in acting. skin colour is just one aspect.
if you have a problem with newton being portrayed by a black man, but you’re ok with a ginger being cast, you’re just kind of racist. you’re saying that the colour of your skin prevents you from playing certain roles, but other physical attributes don’t.
and if you’re making this a cultural/ heritage thing, then no irish actors should be playing brits. that’s even crazier from a historical standpoint.
anachronism is about the character and plot, not about the physical appearance of the actor, come on
dcnb65 on
The number of non-white people in the UK before the 20th century was tiny, so depicting a multi-cultural society in period dramas is inaccurate and ridiculous.
MazrimReddit on
I thought it was the audience who was wrong when they stopped watching because of this though
26 Comments
I wouldn’t be against this backlash against colour-blind casting except it only ever feels like applies when a black person plays a “white” role.
When was the last time you saw a furore over a white person playing Jesus though? Probably never.
Hope they follow suit. I stopped watching stuff post 00s era for a myriad of other reasons, this recent colour blindness and depicting history as being different etc e.g filming different ethnicities in places they would have been minorities in positions of power where they were absent of power just adds to that.
I like things portrayed accurately so i better understand how things were in history so that we dont go repeating it…
[deleted]
So I notice a lot of nitpicking directed towards the BBC like this, aiming to stamp out “liberal bias”. But what you never see from the board of directors is nitpicking in the opposite direction, to tackle conservative bias. Funny that.
Headline is a bit misleading.
Yonder said that when on-screen diversity missed the mark, it could “drive people away” from the BBC. “Representation alone was not enough – people also expected deep and nuanced portrayal,” it added.
[removed]
You can tell who didn’t read the article before commenting.
Completely rewriting history, i saw a BBC advert around Christmas that had African vikings on one of their programs 🤣
[removed]
Colour*
Yes please. King and Conqueror having a middle eastern fellow as the Earl of Merica was just wierd. It’s also suspiciously only ever colour blind one way..
Not a lot of anti-colonial storylines with Shaka Zulu played by a white bloke.
[removed]
[removed]
I’m a bit sceptical the BBC will take these recommendations on board but it would be nice to be proven wrong.
As someone who is very into history, I find a lot of historical television series (E.g, Vikings, Last Kingdom) difficult to watch because of the jarring inaccuracies.
Sometimes I can look past Vikings dressed like biker gang members, the “schinging” sound of drawn swords, or plainly dressed nobles in drab grey castles, but it’s especially hard not to see Sub-Saharan Africans in pre colonial era Europe as being especially jarring.
> “In depicting an anachronistic historical world in which people of colour are able to rise to the top of society as scientists, artists, courtiers and Lords of the Realm, there may be the unintended consequence of erasing the past exclusion and oppression of ethnic minorities and breeding complacency about their former opportunities,” the review said.
Sorry to disappoint the anti-woke brigade, but this is more “wokeness.”
[removed]
[removed]
No new adaptions of passage to India then I suppose.
The thing i find about forcing diversity into casting is that a casting director at some point has taken race into account, and that defeats the whole point. Gaslighting people as racist for pointing that out is not the move either.
[removed]
Colour blind casting has a place, but sometimes I just want to see a period drama be as authentic as possible. I find it harder to be drawn in when the casting is so completely random. It didn’t make sense to suddenly do colour blind casting for the second series of Wolf Hall, when they hadn’t for the first. It seems at the moment that an increasing number of period dramas are using colour blind casting. I genuinely think we risk painting a false picture of our history.
Also, make period dramas about real ethnic minority people.
So we aren’t getting Dick Turpin as a progressive lesbian pistol wielding, they/them/her/it/asian/African/east asian/asylum seeker/male presenting/vegan/woman of power then? I’m gutted /s
Another interesting thread in that report, that isn’t as headline-grabbing, is its recommendation to focus more on diversity of class and region. As well as including more Asians (South, Southeast and East) and Eastern Europeans. That last one made me realise that actually there are barely any Eastern Europeans on TV; there were a couple of characters from Poland and Hungary in the drama series Capital about 12 years ago but I can’t think of any others
I worked on a tv drama set in 16th century England, and they went a bit mad with it. To me the worst of the casting was having Japanese people as regular supporting cast, I’m not even sure if we had met Japanese people or knew they existed until 100 years after .
this is bullshit
most brits had rotten teeth and were 5’ 3 200 years ago. i don’t see people kicking up a fuss about a hot man with a pearly denture playing an old lord.
what if race is just not an important trait of people’s character? physical resemblance is just not that relevant in acting. skin colour is just one aspect.
if you have a problem with newton being portrayed by a black man, but you’re ok with a ginger being cast, you’re just kind of racist. you’re saying that the colour of your skin prevents you from playing certain roles, but other physical attributes don’t.
and if you’re making this a cultural/ heritage thing, then no irish actors should be playing brits. that’s even crazier from a historical standpoint.
anachronism is about the character and plot, not about the physical appearance of the actor, come on
The number of non-white people in the UK before the 20th century was tiny, so depicting a multi-cultural society in period dramas is inaccurate and ridiculous.
I thought it was the audience who was wrong when they stopped watching because of this though