Noel Clarke sexual harassment allegations, suspended by BAFTA

[Cwenthryth]

www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/apr/29/actor-noel-clarke-accused-of-groping-harassment-and-bullying-by-20-women

🤬🤬🤬

Especially galling that BAFTA was seemingly made aware of this before giving him his very recent honour. I watched his acceptance speech and found it really moving in terms of celebrating a working class black man’s success in a historically white industry. Turns out he’s an (alleged) sexual abuser. Fucking great.

There is such a thing a trial by media but there is also such a thing as investigative journalism. Innocent until proven guilty is also a good motto, but imagine a world in which we can only expose, scrutinise and criticise someone's behaviour until they have been the subject of a successful criminal prosecution. Most politicians in the expenses scandal were not doing anything illegal: should the investigative journalists at The Telegraph not have published that story?

I'm sickened by the response of so many women to these allegations. Some on here. Loads on Twitter, FB etc.

At my workplace just last week a female student made an allegation of upskirting against a male student. My jobshare (50ish) said "oh well they do wear such short skirts" another colleague, after word got round expressed concern for the male student. When I reminded them that recent research showed 75% of young women have experienced sexual harrassment and violence they said nothing. Grim.

I really hope the tide is turning and younger women refuse to tolerate this.

Can someone link to the Reddit thread?

Am I right in thinking most of what he's allegedly done would not interest the police or CPS in the slightest? So he's never going to be found guilty in court anyway

yes. totally right. When only 1% of rape cases are prosecuted this stuff goes nowhere. All the innocent til proven guilty types need to wake up to reality.

Sorry, to my mind your second paragraph is just a longer way of describing “inside joke about Johnny B getting his cock out”. It’s accepting indecent exposure as a punchline.

I don’t doubt some people genuinely do find it funny btw. It’s one thing at a private party/amongst friends but a whole other inappropriate (cock and) ball game in the workplace or when in a professional setting. My ex had a squaddie friend who did similar at parties or in the pub. Always with the hilarity of exposing his gentials to people. So so grim. I’d have a lot more respect for coworkers not accepting it as a funny aside to be recounted for laughs.

@EsmaCannonball

There is such a thing a trial by media but there is also such a thing as investigative journalism. Innocent until proven guilty is also a good motto, but imagine a world in which we can only expose, scrutinise and criticise someone's behaviour until they have been the subject of a successful criminal prosecution. Most politicians in the expenses scandal were not doing anything illegal: should the investigative journalists at The Telegraph not have published that story?

And all of Saville's victims, some who were young as 4 and some who had learning difficulties would have to STFU

What a nonsense withdrawing the programme at the last minute and having it available on ITV hub.

@TheSuezCanalTugBoat

Here it is

@EnidSpyton

What I'd like to see, rather than virtue signalling on twitter, is people in the entertainment industry actually owning that they enable such behaviour and that they are all individually responsible for the safety of their female colleagues.

Film and TV sets are busy places. None of the behaviours Noel Clarke has been accused of - and that many other men in the industry indulge in - happens behind closed doors. From the shouting and humiliation, to the inappropriate touching, comments and demands during shooting, plenty of people would have been there to witness it. If you see something and don't say something, you're part of the problem.

I know it's difficult if you're in a junior position and you feel you need the support of powerful players to help you on your way in your career. But are people in the entertainment industry so morally bankrupt that they will happily stand by while a colleague is being shouted at and harassed in front of them? It seems many are. It defeats me why anyone would want to work in such an industry, where so many people will sell their souls and swallow their morals for a few minutes of screen time.

If they really want change, it has to start with each individual recognising that they have a role to play in changing the culture. Rather than standing by people on twitter, how about you stand by them when they're literally standing next to you in your workplace? Deeds not words!

That is really not easy when you are the one without the power. My Dad worked for a tv company, many years ago. He had a position of responsibility. Someone in a higher position was behaving inappropriately around children. There may well not have been anything sinister going on, but rules were being broken. Dad stood up and challenged this, and was then bullied out of his job and not given a good reference, which led to an incredibly stressful time for us as a family, as he had been the sole earner.

@EnidSpyton

What I'd like to see, rather than virtue signalling on twitter, is people in the entertainment industry actually owning that they enable such behaviour and that they are all individually responsible for the safety of their female colleagues.

Film and TV sets are busy places. None of the behaviours Noel Clarke has been accused of - and that many other men in the industry indulge in - happens behind closed doors. From the shouting and humiliation, to the inappropriate touching, comments and demands during shooting, plenty of people would have been there to witness it. If you see something and don't say something, you're part of the problem.

I know it's difficult if you're in a junior position and you feel you need the support of powerful players to help you on your way in your career. But are people in the entertainment industry so morally bankrupt that they will happily stand by while a colleague is being shouted at and harassed in front of them? It seems many are. It defeats me why anyone would want to work in such an industry, where so many people will sell their souls and swallow their morals for a few minutes of screen time.

If they really want change, it has to start with each individual recognising that they have a role to play in changing the culture. Rather than standing by people on twitter, how about you stand by them when they're literally standing next to you in your workplace? Deeds not words!

Absolutely EnidSpyton, this has gone on far, far, too long in this industry all the promises for change after Harvey Weinstein are the empty, shallow sound-bites they were always meant to be. The industry needs radical, wholesale reform.

@Viviennemary

What a nonsense withdrawing the programme at the last minute and having it available on ITV hub.

Yes. Sorry, I said earlier I'd seen it on iplayer and of course I saw it on iTV Hub. D'oh!

@Maggiesfarm

Oneeyeopen Depressingly a fb group i am on for women in France are furious that the last episode of Viewpoint has been cancelled. ....... I watched it on iplayer, if people can access the BBC in France they can surely access iplayer.

No. Not without a vpn. I can't access any British catch up tv. Amazon prime have also decimated my screen choice since Brexit.

Christ, the story on that Reddit thread about Jimmy Savile... ugh.

Gosh this is quite unbelievable. Re JB

twitter.com/rainy101/status/1388143636467040258?s=21

@EsmaCannonball

There is such a thing a trial by media but there is also such a thing as investigative journalism. Innocent until proven guilty is also a good motto, but imagine a world in which we can only expose, scrutinise and criticise someone's behaviour until they have been the subject of a successful criminal prosecution. Most politicians in the expenses scandal were not doing anything illegal: should the investigative journalists at The Telegraph not have published that story?

Thank you for the informative and thoughtful post! Comments like yours help me to better understand why the issue is being handled the way it is.

I've occasionally heard a person say they would like a workplace where there is never any physical contact or you could never ask a person out at work or all off colour jokes are out

Sorry bit of an aside but in 35 plus working years I've never worked anywhere where it wasn't the norm of no physical contact and no off colour jokes. As for asking people out, in all places I've worked in this a degree of caution is expected if there are significant discrepancies in rank and status.

Can the police actually investigate unless any of these ladies go forward to them?

Apologies if this has been covered but I thought the "moving forward" was telling.

@jakeyboy1

Can the police actually investigate unless any of these ladies go forward to them?

Has theGuardian given their evidence to the police? Has the information been compromised as it’s in the public domain?

@SirVixofVixHall

I'm really sorry about your father's experience, Vix, but he did the right thing.

And he did it because he didn't want to see children getting abused.

Women being abused shouldn't be treated any differently to children being abused. It is a legal requirement to report child abuse. It should be a legal requirement to report sexual harassment and abuse. If it were, then the fear factor would be removed, people would be able to speak out and change would happen. While sexual harassment remains something that's accepted and just 'men being men' and something women should just put up and shut up with, it will continue to run rife in EVERY industry.

This isn't just about the entertainment industry. It's about every workplace. The entertainment industry loves to make everything about them but I'm sure every woman from every walk of life has experienced being spoken to or touched inappropriately in the workplace. I most certainly have. This is a massive societal problem and it's something we all need to be prepared to stand up against and solve together.

We would never stand by and watch a child being abused for fear of losing our jobs. We just wouldn't. We know as a society it's our job to protect children. We should have exactly the same attitude towards women. It makes me so deeply sad that so many people don't.

I find it interesting that when Craig Charles was accused of rape, arrested and thrown in to jail no one had a bad word to say about him. He was getting visits from female tv presenters and no one believed he could have done such a thing. Which proved to be correct.
I find it interesting that those that know NC give the impression that this isn’t exactly a surprise.

An actress friend of Noel Clarke told MailOnline yesterday that the 20 women accusing him of being a 'sexual predator' are pursuing a racist 'witchhunt' as the actor was sacked by Sky, suspended by Bafta and criticised by a co-star who backed his alleged victims.

The actress, who asked not to be named, said the 45-year-old actor, writer and director's fall from grace is because 'no one likes it when a man of colour gets to the top'.

This is no doubt why people stood by and let his behaviour go unchallenged and why those on the receiving end of it felt powerless to report it, lest they be accused of racism and forever branded as racist. Similarly, why John Barrowman got away with his disgusting actions, fear to call him out lest those calling it out be branded homophobic.

How many more times is appalling harm against women going to be dismissed and covered up for fear of being branded racist, homophobic or transphobic? Was nothing learnt from Rochdale?

Women - forever at the bottom of the pile.

OK I don't watch a lot of TV but there are black men doing well who you don't hear these accusations about so that 45 year old actor is talking nonsense.

I saw the Who Do You Think You Are episode on him a while back. One of his female relatives had had a lot of children and I remember him commenting, "Oh Grandma, you liked it, eh?" I felt a bit eww at the time.

God, he said that?

That is so crass.