ITV chief Brian True-May suspended for keeping ethnic minorities out of Midsomer murders

By
Paul Revoir
Last updated at 10:37 AM on 15th March 2011

• Otherwise ‘we might be in Slough’, says long-time executive producer
  

Suspended: Brian True-May made the comments in an interview with the Radio Times

It’s no secret that you don’t see many black or Asian faces on Midsomer Murders.

But a row blew up yesterday after the co-creator of the series revealed the reason why – he deliberately keeps ethnic minority characters out of storylines.

Brian True-May, the ITV drama’s executive producer, found himself suspended after he said he did not use black or Asian people in the series because ‘it wouldn’t be an English village with them’.

He described Midsomer Murders as the ‘last bastion of Englishness’ which relied on an ‘English genteel eccentricity’, claiming it ‘wouldn’t work’ if it suggested there was racial diversity in village life.

Other long running serials, including BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, have been criticised over ‘tokenism’ when they have included ethnic characters.

Mr True-May told the Radio Times if he had more minority cast members ‘we might be in Slough’.

Last night, amid mounting fury from charities and campaigners, the production company behind the show – All3Media – suspended the TV executive. ITV said it was ‘shocked and appalled’ at his remarks.

Midsomer Murders, based on the books by Caroline Graham, was launched in 1997 and has featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murders. The series returns this week with a new star replacing actor John Nettles who played the central character, DCI Tom Barnaby.

Mr True-May said: ‘When I talk to people and other nations they love John Nettles, but they also love the premise of the show.

‘They love the perceived English genteel eccentricity. 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.’

When asked to clarify what he meant, he added. ‘Well, 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.

Popular: Actors John Nettles as DCI Tom Barnaby and Jason Hughes as DS Ben Jones in Midsomer Murders. Nettles quit the show after 13 years and 74 episodes

Character change: Neil Dudgeon and Fiona Dolman are joining Midsomer Murders as the new Barnabys. He will play DCI John Barnaby, a cousin of Nettles’s character Tom Barnaby and she will be his headmistress wife

‘Ironically, Causton the fictional local town in Midsomer Murders is supposed to be Slough. And if you went in to 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 admitted that Englishness should include other races, but added: ‘Maybe I’m not politically correct’.

Mr True-May, who lives in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, near where parts of the show are filmed, added: ‘I’m trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don’t want to change it.’

Campaigners accused the executive of trying to ‘wipe’ ethnic minorities ‘off the screen’ and of ‘distorting’ the presence of black and Asian people in rural areas. 

Yet another murder to solve: Nettles as DCI Barnaby and Caroline Langrishe as Susan Fincher race to the scene in this episode entitled Blood On The Saddle

Midsomer Murders, based on the books by Caroline Graham, was launched in 1997 and has featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murders. The series returns this week

Rob Berkeley, of race equality think tank, the Runnymede Trust said: ‘Clearly, as a fictional work, the producers of  Midsomer Murders are entitled to their flights of fancy, but to claim the English village is purely white is no longer true and not a fair reflection of our society.’ 

Last month Mark Damazer, Radio 4’s former controller (pictured), said radio shows should better reflect modern British society, although he cautioned against deliberately targeting ethnic groups

Mohammed Shafiq, of the Ramadhan Foundation, which aims to create a better understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, said: ‘There is a wider agenda in what he is saying which is worrying for me.

‘To try to wipe us or our presence off television screens is wrong and factually incorrect.’ 

Mr True-May last night said he had been instructed by lawyers not to
comment. His tearful wife, Maureen, described his suspension as
‘ridiculous’.

Villagers in Great Missenden leapt to the producer’s defence. Roy
Stock, 63, said: ‘The whole reason of the show is to depict the tiny
little villages of England.

‘There just aren’t any ethnic people around here. In everyday life in Great Missenden you wouldn’t see any at all.’

Last
month Mark Damazer, Radio 4’s former controller, said radio shows
should better reflect modern British society, although he cautioned
against deliberately targeting ethnic groups.