Chattering Classes

The usual crowd are up in arms because Midsomer Murders employs no Black actors and therefore doesn't reflect contemporary Britain. Oh yes it does reply the usual crowd, since there are certainly no blacks here in Scratchy Bottom or wherever.

Er .... haven't any of these people noticed that Midsomer is a fantasy? There are no Scots in Midsomer, no Irish, no Geordies or Brummies or Scousers. No working class characters, (OK you might glimpse the occasional cleaning lady) no council houses, no houses with unthatched roofs for that matter. Yet surely the English middle class should be allowed their magic realism? Costume dramas no, but after all foreigners seem to like John Nettles and it's made by ITV, so no poor people have been dragged through the courts in order to pay for it.

No, what I object to is the one ethnic minority who have been featured in Midsomer ...the Welsh. An episode that was actually filmed in North Wales, that starred Sharon Morgan - for my Builth readers, she's the one who played the topless French bird in Grand Slam. Good heavens the soundtrack even featured Myfanwy. This can only mean that the fantasy world of the English middle class encompasses the Welsh - Welsh scenery and male voice choirs at least. How wrong is that!

UPDATE: A spoilsport points out that DS Ben Jones was also Welsh, this is true but is rarely mentioned, also he was from Cardiff and hence only mildly exotic.