Midsomer Madness

Despite all the turmoil and tragedy going on in the world, there has still time for some people in this country to display their own particular brand of petty-mindedness. Midsomer Murders has been a popular television drama for a good many years, having run to, what, nine or ten series. It has also, apparently, been a high-earning export and has been shown on television in countries as diverse as Slovenia and India. For those not familiar with the programme, I should explain that it is set in the fictional English county of Midsomer where there are villages with quaint names like Midsomer Worthy, Midsomer Magna, Badgers Drift and so on. All thatched cottages, roses over the door, village greens and vicars on bicycles: quintessentially English. What is not so English is the high murder rate, but fortunately the local plod are blessed with the presence of DCI Tom Barnaby (or they were - he's retired now and the next series will feature his cousin in the lead role) who manages to bring the perpetrator to justice every time with remarkable aplomb.

The storm in a teacup that has blown up over the last couple of days concerns a comment made by the creator and executive producer of the show. He said he was surprised nobody had objected to the lack of any ethnic minorities in the programmes. That sounds innocent enough to me, although he would perhaps have been wiser not to draw the attention of the thought police to this fact. But he went on to compound his mistake by defending himself against an accusation that had, at that time, not been made. He pointed out that in the real-life villages on which his fictional Midsomer ones are based there are few, if any, members of ethnic minorities and that these places are the last bastions of true Englishness. That did it. He has now been suspended and ITV, the company which broadcasts the show, has instigated an enquiry in case his remarks - and the show - are racist.

What a load of nonsense. Until very recently there were no members of "ethnic minorities" living in our street and I have none amongst my circle of friends. Does that make me racist?

If there is one thing guaranteed to make my blood boil it is the requirement for organisations of any description to demonstrate that they are not racist or whatever by having a token woman or person of Asian extraction or whoever on the committee as on the staff. When I was in a position to employ people I wanted the best person for the job, be that man, woman, gay, heterosexual, black or pink. And I am certain that the majority, the great majority, of people are of like mind. Expecting a person or organisation to demonstrate that they are not racist by including a token member of an ethnic minority insults the ethnic minority just as much as it insults anybody else.