As Douglas Is Cancelled prepares to air, Moffat talks about career implosions, Bonneville relives past nude scenes – and Kingston recalls the ‘wandering hands’ warnings she used to be given
As Douglas Is Cancelled prepares to air, Moffat talks about career implosions, Bonneville relives past nude scenes – and Kingston recalls the ‘wandering hands’ warnings she used to be given
A lot to assume fropm the description.
It may well be done in the way Alf Garnet was back in the 1970s.
As many here will be way to young to remember the character. He was the main character of a show called “Till Death Us Do Part” He and his wife were an old married couple. And required home help (government funded care coming in daily to help with keeping the house tidy etc).
The show was famous for the racist crap alf would sprout. Often to his Black home help worker. But in general he was expressing some of the worst 1930s ideals in a 1970s environment.
The best way to describe the ideal and general way most Brits understood it. Is to share the view Warren Mitchell the actor who played alf described it in an interview.
He was asked about the portraial of the character. To paraphrase his reply.
I was once approached by a guy on the street. Who told me he was a fan and loved the way Alf took the piss out of the “Darkies”. To this he responded. You idiot. It is **** like you we are taking the piss out of.
While if that event actually happened (who knows) it was clear that guy was not effected by the piss taking. As he did not even recognise it.
As a young man (early teens when that interview happened) who grew up with the show. It was very clear to everyone else that we were laughing at the character not with him. The show always managed to portray his views as either idiotic or just pathetic. He was seen as a scared old man worried about losing his power in society. Even by a 1970s audience at a time when most were way less informed about things then now.
Ill def agree such an attempt now would be difficult to pull off in the same way. And was likely less effective then the writers hoped in the 70s.
Id defiantly be interested to see if it can be done effectively with a modern audience.
Making the racist the butt of the joke is still openly airing and giving a platform to racism on tv, and as your anecdote proves, some people (those it’s actually aimed at) don’t see it as a joke at all because they are that person, and being the “star” of a tv show only emboldens them (and those who the bigotry targets are still the ones actually being targeted, whoever the butt of the joke supposedly is).
Also, that isn’t the case for this show, where it isn’t the bigot who is the butt of the joke, but those calling him out.
Either way, it was garbage then, and it’s garbage now, trying to make it ok somehow is completely missing the point (that both examples exists to pander to bigots, full stop).
I am curios what I have missed that indicates that. As I have not seen a script and cannot imagine the writers openly saying so.
There is no doubt folks in the 70s. Even those with the right intent made mistakes. And did what folks now would consider stupid. And I have no reason to assume the writers of this are not also making such mistakes.
But I have seen nothing that talks about the intent or plans of this show beyond it being about a news presenter getting cancelled. It really sounds like you think adressing the negativity of the anti woke crowd is impossible. While at the same time making some non evidenced rather nasty accusations about the writer of a show you haven’t seen?