Friday, October 27, 2006
More on BBC Biting BBC
I wouldn't know where to start in tackling the political correctness of BBC drama, but I think the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves would go to Spooks, BBC1's flagship series about impossibly right-on MI5 agents. The series was originally praised (by the BBC) for its accuracy about the real work of the Security Service. So what did it kick off with on the first episode? A pro-life extremist bomber out to cause mayhem. Come on, you must know about them! No? Well, what about episode two, which tackled the equally pressing issue of racist extremists in league with Right-wing politicians plotting mass murder of immigrants? I lost interest in Spooks, but tuned in again a few weeks ago for the start of the fifth series. It was about homegrown al-Qa'eda terrorists taking over the Saudi embassy and murdering innocent people. Except that they weren't British Muslims at all, but undercover Israeli agents. Once again, the villains are a million miles away from the ones you might expect, and top-heavy with the forces of reaction.
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4 comments:
Once again, the villains are a million miles away from the ones you might expect, and top-heavy with the forces of reaction.
Aahhh, but this allows the Pepes of this world of feeling oh so smug about it, wallowing in their imaginary little pink world.
Of course, the classic of the genre is the Hollywood version of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, where the believable terrorists (who smash a plane into the Capitol) from the book get transmogrified into blue-eyed aryan nazis, bent on .. oh well, what's the point?
Inever saw that. These things on the Beeb must have been the source of a good deal of irony around the UK. You know they're pretty good at that. Maybe a little googling...
Never saw what -- the Beeb shows, or the Hollywood movie?
The original terrorists in the novel were Muslim extremists, but in the movie, they are changed to neo-Nazis. A common misconception is that this was done as a reaction to the 9/11 attacks. However the script was conceived before September 11, 2001. On the "making-of" DVD extra, the director says that this was purely for elements relating to the plot, as Muslim extremists would not be able to plausibly accomplish all that was necessary for the story to work.
Yeah, right.
Never saw either. I haven't bought a BBC license! This is ridiculous about the changes...
BTW, I sat through about 20 minutes of Hollywood's "Casanova". Damn it was awful. Every two minutes there has to be some woman being better than C at something and him whimpering that it has nothing to do with conquest. Add to it that they're in Venice and there isn't a brunette to be found, and we're close to nausea.
I wanted to ask SB about the contents of the memoirs as e's read them and pretty much has used them as a script for his life. Getting him to take a position opposing PC police on that might be tough, though.
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