Stephen Poliakoff says it is ‘striking’ how few Jewish characters are portrayed in British TV dramas
Some 250,000 or so in the population. One in 200. Do we hit that sort of level of representation? In anything where the religion of the character is either im- or ex-plicit?
Actually, the real explanation is this:
Launching his new BBC drama Summer of Rockets,
Gotta say something to get the PR going….
You have to admit, it would put some diversity among the calls to prayer and aspiring rappers of Midsomer.
Given the vast over-representation of Jews in the TV companies, maybe it’s Jews don’t like making TV dramas about Jews.
Here’s an idea. How about normalising the sons and daughters of Abraham with a sitcom series? “The Kosher Princess of Dollis Hill”, has a certain ring to it.
The producer of ‘Balamory’ just started sobbing uncontrollably…
The other problem is also that of that 250,000, most of them aren’t very Jewish. Like, if you stripped away the surname “Cohen”, would you know that Sacha Baron Cohen was Jewish?
There’s still the religious orthodox Jews but that’s a dwindling number of people.
It’s like every gay character on TV is like the guy from The Bureau, but most conversations with gay characters at work are about sales targets or getting a printer fixed.
Clearly only ugly Jewish moneylender types should be allowed to play Shylock.
And yet, if Shylock or Fagin had their own spin off TV series, he still wouldn’t be happy.
Like, if you stripped away the surname “Cohen”, would you know that Sacha Baron Cohen was Jewish?
Frankly, yes, because of his passive aggressive social critique disguised as vulgar comedy.
“Don’t kill each other, kill a Christian” – Bruno.
the other way to do it is JK rowling approach which i think is genius. Write a kids novel. Then when you’ve made a billion, let everyone know that their favourite characters were gay.
” How about normalising the sons and daughters of Abraham with a sitcom series? “The Kosher Princess of Dollis Hill” ”
How about a sitcom in which a wealthy Jewish businessman racially and sexually abuses his non-Jewish employees? Too far-fetched?
I hear that Corbyn was told that there were 248,768 Jews in the UK. “Wouldn’t it be easier”, he said, “if that number could be rounded up?”.
Andrew, that was good.
I thought the Jewish population of the UK was about 600,000, seems I was way wrong.
Although, based on those numbers, Jews are way overrepresented in the UK print media.
Perhaps The Times could be forced to sack David Aaronovitch and Giles Coren, but the BBC forced to employ them?
David could be a troubled detective, trying to solve crimes committed by Muslim migrants but refusing to apportion blame, even when his synagogue burns down. We could call it: “At least be on your own side Dave!”
Giles could be in a new reality TV show where celebrities are lowered into the magma chamber of an active volcano.
Giles could be in a new reality TV show where celebrities are lowered into the magma chamber of an active volcano
Throw in Ant and Dec and you’ve got a winner.
” Perhaps The Times could be forced to sack David Aaronovitch and Giles Coren, but the BBC forced to employ them?”
To go along with John Sopel, Katya Adler, Steve Rosenberg, Judith Moritz and Emily Maitlis perhaps?
P.S: Why, when Alan Coren seemed like a decent, funny guy, are his children such annoying twats?
“Perhaps The Times could be forced to sack David Aaronovitch and Giles Coren…”
Let’s not forget, at The Times, Oliver Kamm, Danny Finkelstein and Melanie Phillips….MP is only one to oppose mass immigration.
“Why, when Alan Coren seemed like a decent, funny guy, are his children such annoying twats?”
Cherchez la femme?
Theo – I think it was Bill Kristol who explained recently why Jews are fine with demographic instability (i.e. mass immigration).
He said that, as a Jew, he could happily move to another major city in the safe knowledge that there’d be a local Jewish community to take him in. This is obviously true, and it’s equally obvious the same doesn’t apply to gentiles – for all the recent talk of losing the “right” to work in Europe, for most people moving to Foreign is a deeply alienating experience. Even moving within your own country can be isolating (particularly for women).
So the Jewish experience of migration, as a people who’ve lived as a diaspora for a couple of milennia and have the world’s finest ethnic network to rely on, is diametrically opposed to the gentile experience of trying to build up stable communities rooted in particular places, defending them from invasion, and then passing those communities on to their children.
If a “Jewish character” is not pertinent to story-line, why should it be created?
Few overtly “Christian characters” too – eg in Line Of Duty
Furthermore, any “Jewish character” would be criticised by Jews as stereotypical, insulting, yadda
@AndrewC, that was good.
.
FTFY