Anglo-Saxons will be played by a diverse cast in a new BBC historical drama about the Battle of Hastings.
The eight-part series King and Conqueror will tell the story of Harold and William’s epoch-defining struggle for the throne of England in 1066.
Some Anglo-Saxon characters, including a real 11th-century leader, will be played by a diverse set of actors.
So when Zulu is remade there will be a nicely speckled set of warriors? Any slave drama will include a few whities out in the fields, a few of darker tint weilding whips I assume?
Oh Good.
I can’t wait to see a pygmy creating a vitamin D tablet from wattle and daub to enable all the darkies to survive!
Who will the thralls be played by ?
There has been some controversy surrounding the casting of William the Conqueror’s personal adviser and confidant, Angel de Leit.
11th century records from the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux suggest that de Leit may have been gender-queer and the proposal that the role be played by a white cis-woman has provoked uproar among Stonewall’s equity-card membership.
‘ Diversity’ just means fewer white people, so an all Bantu army of Zulu’s would be 100% diverse.
I shall watch out particularly carefully for the representative wheelchair users.
Of course not, Tim. Don’t be silly.
I’m eagerly awaiting the remake of Tarzan.
It might be the first time Le Roy is actually played by Leroy.
Rorke’s Drift will be occupied by a Company of heroic transmen fighting off the fuzzy wuzzies and the wounded will be patched up by the tender ministrations of transwomen nurses with heavy beards.
We know this to be the true reflection of our history rather than the cisgender propagandised version.
No need to break out the boot polish to play Othello now, just play him as white.
The obvious remake would be Roots. With whites as the slaves & blacks as plantation owners & overseers. Then see how the story plays out with the audience sympathies. Of course if you set it in Morocco, it’d also be historically accurate.
I look forward to a show about Scottish history featuring the Black Douglas and the Red Douglas.
We covered this before I think but Zulu the roadblocks game does indeed have pink zulus.
This is why it’s so important to vote Tory, as PJF was urging us lol.
BiS: That story has already been written.
“Farnham’s Freehold” by R.A.H.
There were. Cromwell sold Royalist prisoners into slavery. So, yes, a few whiteys in the mix would be accurate.
Through John Dunn’s heroic efforts there were a lot of mixed-race Zulus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Dunn
Race swapping, gender swapping, making a character gay. There’s almost no TV or movies that have been good with it. And I think it just comes from people trying to look busy or modern.
Lucy Liu was pretty great as Joan Watson, in the superior Elementary. Although a bit of a different character.
BiS: Al Beeb (naturally!) did it a while ago. Some black authoritarian government keeping the whites down with a sub-plot of the high up black girl fancying a downtrodden white guy, going against miscegenation rules.
Ho Hum.
Wasn’t there a cigarette advert based on Zulu/Rorke’s Drift, that had very well spoken Zulu spearing the redcoated tommies “Terribly sorry old chap” etc.? Benson & Hedges?
They did a similarly well-themed one in the middle of Callan, IIRC
The 1964 classic 633 Squadron has been vandalised by over-dubbing so that Guy Gibson’s dog is now referred to as Trigger.
A diverse remake would do away with this abomination albeit with the resultant minor distraction of not knowing if the cast members were addressing the dog or each other.
WB
“Race swapping, gender swapping, making a character gay. There’s almost no TV or movies that have been good with it. ”
Including Peter Jackson in LoR.
“The 1964 classic 633 Squadron has been vandalised by over-dubbing so that Guy Gibson’s dog is now referred to as Trigger.”
There was no 633 squadron during the war, it was a fictional squadron from a novel and subsequent film. Gibson commanded 617 squadron on the Dam Busters raid, in a Lancaster, and was killed flying a Mosquito pathfinder in 1944. I think the Dam Busters film has been bowdlerised to change his dog’s name though.
[apologies if this has already been pointed out, the new delayed comments system is killing this blog]
The name of Guy Gibson’s dog was still popular with RAF personnel many years later. In the 70’s I was tasked with transporting a Flight Lieutenant’s black Labrador with the famous name from Detmold to Rheindahlen.
@Tractor Gent
Ah yes. I remember not watching it. I can’t recall if I watched the first two minutes or just a trailer.