Anyone else sick of Victoria Coren Michell slagging off Roald Dahl on ONLY CONNECT?

[Pottingplants]

Just that - anytime a question has anything to do with Roald Dahl Victoria is doing her best to put the boot in (it has happened at least 4 times now). I think if she dislikes him so much she should not have any questions which are to do with Dahl. I am surprised she is allowed to do this TBH.

(realised I misspelt Mitchell but can't edit it!)

So she is practising her religion? And then there is her brother

I haven't seen much Taskmaster and haven't seen VCM on it. Does she have a different persona depending on if she is guest or host? (not being snippy; genuine question)

I loved his books as a child, still love some of them now. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t a complete knob to others.

He was an anti-semite, also racist towards other groups of people. Also misogynistic and was pretty vile towards his wife, Patricia Neal, so I've read. Could be quite an unpleasant personality.

He also had a fantastic imagination, especially when writing for children (the books of David Walliams are just a pale imitation), I loved them as a kid. He also did quite a lot of good in the world. (eg that brain shunt thing for children with hydrocephalus that he helped to invent).

Quite a mix of a person. Although I enjoyed his books and later DD did too (before I heard more about him), I don't think I would have liked to meet him.

I think it is fair enough for Victoria CM to say what she did, good on her.

She quoted one of his remarks, which was something along the lines of "even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason", and I can imagine how that would make you feel as a Jew. I find her smug and sanctimonious but I cannot fault her for calling out anti-Semitism.

Oh dear OP. Cringing for you.

David Baddiel is just a massive pain in the arse. An apology had to be draaaagged out of that man for his blackfacing.

The thing is she just condemns that aspect of RD. She still says he's a good author, and as a PP said, she's not trying to cancel him or eradicate him from history.

She is pretty smart so I suspect she is able to understand that people are nuanced and can be immensely talented, brave and selfless in some respects, and hold appalling views, or do terrible things.

I love that Roald Dahl's stories are so dark. It expresses the fact that we are all monsters in our unconscious. We have to be, in order to create and consume the extravagant evils of fairy tales, folk myths and much individually authored fiction.
He was clearly a bad man in several respects. But I want to be able to wallow in the creativity that his ambiguous character created. It is part of how we monitor and explore our own moral ambiguity.

sounds like she is over stepping her role as a host

no, I think it's her prerogative, and an act of integrity. Nobody's cancelling him, he is a cultural touchstone and he still gets to be in quiz questions, she just adds her own aside when she talks about him.
She doesn't devise the questions after all, she's the host. Maybe she doesn't feel he should be presented neutrally.

If she has done it several times, the production company and the BBC clearly don't mind. From that point of view, she has not overstepped.

She doesn't devise the questions after all, she's the host.
She gets some other credit, too. Isn't she an executive producer or something like that.

would you excuse alexander armstrong the same opinions?
or richard osman, michael mcintyre on the wheel?
clive myrie?

I've found the credit: she's a "consulting producer".

The thing is if you allow VC to regularly voice her distaste of RD then why not Jeremy Clarkson on Millionaire and people he hates? Or Clive Myrie on mastermind? Or Alexander Armstrong on pointless? Or Amol ragan on university challenge? Or Michael McIntyre on the wheel or Bradley Walsh on the chase?
maybe they have strong opinions on people too- should they also be allowed to have little digs as they read out the questions?

This isn’t the clincher that you think it is

Nor is this

@Deathbyathousandcats
obviously if they were also jewish, that goes without saying really. are you saying she should be forgiven because she is jewish

So pilots cannot be racist/misogynistic/anti-semetic/homophobic...?
Even 'hero's' can be horrid people
Are you related to Dahl by any chance? You seem to be awfully keen to defend him

Why not? Genuinely interested in counter arguments

pointless information for you
What relation is Alexander Armstrong to Victoria Coren Mitchell?
Brother-in-law
Brother-in-law of David Mitchell, Victoria Coren Mitchell and Giles Coren. His wife, Hannah Bronwen Snow is the sister of Giles Coren's wife, Esther Walker.

phew

@LadyKenya thanks for making me reflect. Every day really is a school day!

All a bit incestuous!

Even the staff at the Ronald Dahl Museum say he was a horrible person so why shouldn’t Victoria Coren Mitchell. The whole point of Only connect is that the show is very personal to her and wouldn’t be the same with someone else in the chair.