. . To hate that there's not enough black people on tv

[Iloverusks]

Yesthey are flittered into the soaps and some tv shows. But since Desmond's there has not been a tv show where the majority of the cast are black. Of course there are countless "all white" shows.

In these multicultural times why is this the case?

Going back to the OP, I think it does matter to have programmes where black characters are not just the exception, surrounded by white people.

That way we see black/Asian/etc people in families and friendship groups, interacting with one another in a normal natural way, not just as the lone different person. I suppose soaps do that with black and Asian families.

When black people (going back to that as that's what speaks most directly to me) are portrayed it is often in rather narrow ways. Always African-Caribbean origin, not African. Almost always from and in London. Usually with certain stock attitudes and characteristics. Boring and annoying.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is one of my favourite actors ever, I loved her in Without A Trace.

I don't actually watch television anymore, we have Netflix. I think virtually everything I've watched recently has been predominantly white though. More could defiitely be done to move away from the standard white man casting though.

That said, wrt black British actors moving to America, I read a really intereating article about how British actors in general (and soap actors especially) are in high demand in America due to being cheaper, less arsey and having a stronger work ethic.

Well, that's fairly accurate, Wasps. Huge swathes of the Cotswolds are now virtual no-go areas unless you can afford your own bodyguard (although if you can afford your own bodyguard, statistically around 25% of the time they will secretly be related to your mortal enemy or have a personal grudge against you, so that carries its own risks).

Even cities like Oxford pose significant risks. On average, based on an analysis of Inspector Morse , a typical student will expect to see 2.7 of his/her friends murdered over the course of a three-year degree (except mathematicians, who will see both of their friends murdered).

Yep, you're much better off in south-east London where it is both charmingly multicultural (in the genuine sense of the word: my road, from the alkies' hostel at one end to the posher houses at the other, spans a gamut of effnic mixes, not all of which are correlated with the economic ones) and you can get through the day in safety.

Someone give Eamonn Walker a UK role. I would watch that man creosoting a fence.

Eldritch - um, I think Adrian Lester was the lead in 6 of the 7 seasons of the fairly major BBC show Hustle, so I don't think you can say he doesn't get TV roles in the UK. He was also in the godawful Bonekickers that the BBC rightly cancelled after one series.

Sometimes, an actor can also be particularly tied up with theatre that they can't do a series or film at the same time. Adrian Lester does quite a lot of theatre.

Interestingly, I would say that you definitely see more black actors on stage a lot more, and possibly in a better ratio than on TV a lot of the time.

I didn't say he never got any. I am aware he was in Hustle. But he is not working regularly in British TV, which given his looks and talent, is something of a surprise. And when you see that lots of the other black British actors around at the moment aren't either, then a pattern emerges.

Why is football coverage part of the tv News?

Some things I will never get my head around.

It'd be quite nice to see more diversity injected into tv/films etc at the casting stage rather than at the writing stage 'let's make this character black and therefore with these characteristics and storylines', 'let's make this character disabled and have a storyline about that'.

Eldritch - but that could simply be his choice or availability rather than a failure on a casting director's part not to put him up for certain TV roles. He also writes and directs and, like some actors, may well prefer stage work. And one series of Hustle each year for six years would generally be regarded as regular TV work and a six-episode series might take two-three months to film. He's doing Othello at the moment at the National Theatre.

Apparently Jodie Foster's agent is under instruction to look out for interesting men's roles and put her forward for them; a number of her recent parts were written for men and went out to casting call looking for a man. And IIRC Peter Dinklage' s part in The Station Agent was written for an actor of normal stature.

US television and film is much better at writing black characters/casting black actors but IIRC (based on recollection of an article I read that had specific figures in it) absolutely terrible at representation of Hispanic and Asian (South-East Asian/Indian subcontinent/other) characters.

well why not have a sitcom that is based on a black/polish/gypsy family. i thought citizen khan was funny, not great but funny. a sitcom that sees the amusing side of life from another perspective

Eldritch - but that could simply be his choice or availability rather than a failure on a casting director's part not to put him up for certain TV roles

Of course, it could. Hence my point about other black actors (and Asian actors) also not being regularly featured, and a pattern emerging. It is even worse for the women than the men, I think.

As someone who lives in an extremely white area I find people of colour seem over-represented on tv. Not that I care, but it seems tokenistic quite often.

I heard a scriptwriter talking about how hard it is to cast actors of colour. He said his team will be brainstorming about which character will be what and are open to a person being any colour, but when it comes to actual casting the producers become very afraid that any negative traits will be seen as stereotyping or perjorative if the minority-ethnic character is the only person with that negative trait. So the safest thing to do is to keep everybody white to avoid offence. Especially true for comedy, not much better for thrillers or drama.

And this is why there are so few interesting parts for non-white actors. They get stuck with fairly bland good-guy or bad-guy parts.

So what we need first is more BME, disabled and trans producers to change thinking where casting is concerned. It really isn't that difficult and doesn't require that kind of hand-wringing.

It's only going to be stereotyping if the negative character trait is one commonly associated with the minority ethnic group in question, though. So, fair enough, don't cast a clearly Jewish actor as a stingy character, don't cast someone Asian as a pushy parent trying to instil a strict work ethic into his/her children, etc., etc. But assuming you've written interesting and well-rounded characters, rather than cardboard cutouts who only have one or two character traits each, there's absolutely no reason you can't cast a BME (or even (gasp!) female) actor in a part that doesn't reinforce Daily Mail stereotypes. If you don't think you can do it then it may be a sign that your characters are insufficiently well-written.

I can see that is one of the reasons but it's really not the only one. There is this perception that casting someone who happens to have black skin in an 'ordinary', interesting role somehow imbues that role/character with particular, racially-related significance - and that 'most viewers' will find this at best something they cannot identify with, at worst off-putting.

Production is a riskycommercial venture. They have to reduce risks where they can. BBC is public-owned so they can't be commissioning programmes which are too controversial.

(Although personally what I would like to see is more Aunties on telly. Scary Indian Aunties. The sort who pinch your cheek and tell you how fat/thin/pale/well you are looking. They might be stereotypical but god they are familiar.)

But it is very easy to employ those arguments about what people will accept (never having focus-grouped or asked them) in order to defend your own conservative mindset or avoid having to make a bit of effort.

Having a few black/Asian/gay characters scattered around the place is hardly controversial! More realistic, frankly, of my kids' experience than some sort of all-white straight ghetto.

Klink, the BBC showed Jerry Springer The Opera . Do you really feel that casting a few more women or know-how actors

(WTF autocorrect? non-white actors) would be a step too far into controversy?

(and lljkk, not Klink. Klink isn't even a word)

Sadly, MN is not like real life.
In real life, many people are extremely small-minded & find that comforting. They look for any opportunity to reinforce their existing prejudices. And producers of mass-consumption media have to work around that. If anything I'm pretty sure most screen-writers have quite strong left-wing progressive biases.