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!)

And she's allowed to make a point on one subject but not another - same with the 'oh you don't care about the war in Ukraine because you are talking about free school meals' type discourse that sometimes comes up. No one person can, needs to or should wan`t to address everything and that's no reason to address nothing.

Which actually is quite a bit, if you ask me. The questions could cover literally anything, and she's a consulting producer as well as the host - she could just refuse those questions.

So she has chosen to mention it that many times. Given the breadth that she could cover, it's definitely a personal choice from her. I think it's fine for viewers to say they find that too much - it's supposed to be light entertainment.

She also talks about RP's parents and wife as if these are mitigating circumstances. No one disputes that awful things happened in his life. But again the inference is that we should keep these in mind when deciding how he should be treated.I disagree with that. He did what he did and has never been punished for it. There are no excuses or mitigating circumstances. Implying otherwise does make a person an apologist imo.
I agree, having now read her article. There are no excuses for what he did to a child.

Bond films are misogynistic, but at no point do they suggest that women’s characteristics mean they deserve an attempted genocide. It’s not remotely comparable.

Also, everyone knows Bond films are subject to rampant casual misogyny. There are posters on this thread who were unaware of RD’s stance on Jewish people.

And even if neither of those things are true, it’s not VCM’s job to champion every issue. It’s her choice. If you don’t like it, don’t watch her shows.

And if you like her shows but dislike her stance on these issues, or her personally, that’s just tough shit. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things for your beliefs. And if this is one you think is a dealbreaker for you, that’s your call. I think it would make you anti-Semitic if that were your stance, though.

@ClaudiaWankleman ". I think it's fine for viewers to say they find that too much - it's supposed to be light entertainment."

Of course. Just as it's fine for her to say what she wants to say. And for viewers to turn off if they want to.

Yeah I think you’ve just restated many of the points that came above. I’m not sure what your point really is - you’ve not really advanced the conversation.

Wow. I did not know that it was a whole book RD wrote, not just some comments in an interview.

Or that Michael Coren, who conducted the interview at 24 and received the insults face to face, was a cousin of VCM's dad.

I think we would all feel closer to an issue with this personal link than a general concern about Bond films, even without comparing the seriousness of the two.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-my-fateful-interview-with-roald-dahl-brought-me-face-to-face-with-anti/

Sorry, who made you queen of the thread?

I'm pretty sure you aren't the first to say something like 'it's supposed to be entertainment' either!

Wow. I'm even more in favour of VCM making her comments now.
Very shocking and eye opening.

I'm not being queen of the thread, it's just weird when you respond to someone's point and they act as if they're trumping you by just repeating what's already been said.

@ClaudiaWankleman "
Yeah I think you’ve just restated many of the points that came above. I’m not sure what your point really is - you’ve not really advanced the conversation"

Thank you. I'll certainly bear your notes in mind before I post again.

It must be extremely difficult putting together the question on OC, and by definition they will be based on knowledge that is within the knowledge of the question setters. So there may be a bajillion other subjects, but certainly not a bajillion other potential questions.

But he was racist.

Do all go and seethe brilliant play Giant at the Royal Court which explores all these themes with incredible intelligence.

As well as being a "very bad egg", RD's children's stories are deeply imbued with his nastiness. If they weren't so well-written, they'd be dismissed out of hand, but because of his writing talent, his nasty ideas continue to contaminate readers. We could ignore his work if he'd only written one book, but there's so bloomin' many of them!

They really are. I didn’t know about his disgusting opinions, but just felt the books were spiteful and cruel.

Well I’m more perfect as I’m not a raging anti semite. But there you go. She also takes the mickey out of Portillo but I was saying to my husband I bet she knows him. Her comment about being set up on a date with a milliband brother was amusing.

Decent?

well racist chap

She's fine to say what she says. It's contextual and tbh i havent even seen an episode of OC with a RD question in - i had to go online! It adds to our wider understanding of RD and antisemitism.

I have no opinion on her personally but have a massibe crush on her husband 😂🤣🤣🥰

He was also involved in the development of a cerebral shunt called the Wade-Dahl-Till valve. Doesn't make him an all round good guy unless you apply the halo affect.

Why should a Jewish woman make a comment about an anti semite? Was her comment worse to his about Jewish people? Is that why his comments are OK and hers aren't?

i don’t think it is black and white, as a pp said, he was a very complex character.

I am Jewish and yes, he was anti semitic and also misogynistic. I don’t doubt he could be deeply unpleasant to others, and I think he probably enjoyed winding people up by saying shocking/ rude/ unpleasant things. He clearly had a very twisted sense of humour. Which makes it difficult to know what his true belief systems were. I agree that he could be unkind/ verbally abusive to Patricia Neal and I know that he emotionally neglected his second child Tessa after the death of Olivia, his oldest.

Not making excuses, but he lost both his father and sister as a young child, and then became a full boarder at 7, in austere and cruel establishments that were totally male run. And then of course the war, and the brain damage caused by his aeroplane crash. Latterly, his oldest daughter died of measles age 7. Then his baby son Theo was involved in a car accident and left with brain damage; they were originally told he would die. And then, when the 3/4 surviving children were still very young, his wife /their mum had a catastrophic stroke.

He was an incredibly passionate and determined character - as pp said, the medical invention for Theo and his commitment and drive for Theo to become independent against medical opinion (and Theo did.). And then, when Patricia had her stroke, he did hours of (yes ruthless) work with her a day on her recovery, and she herself maintained that she would never have recovered without him. His children all speak fondly of his warmth, humour and time he spent with them, certainly not perfect but an involved father and also grandfather.

Having said all that, on balance, I suspect he was a shit with redeeming qualities. I doubt very much I would have liked him, but I might have enjoyed arguing with him - he liked to be challenged - and I think I would have found him funny. So that’s my twopence worth!

No.
I loved his writing as a child but to be honest he does deserve some slagging off.
I mean it's not as tho hrs being cancelled. He's still considered a great writer and he's still got questions being asked about his work on quiz shows..
It's just that, quite understandably, people now point out some of his horrific views and some of the shitty things he did and said.
Which is fair enough.

Nearly everyone was antisemitic at that time. If you’re going to look for a ‘racist’ you’d have a hard job to find a person who didn’t have some sort of bigoted ideas. It was the times, it was ignorance. You can’t write off a writer on that basis from the era he grew up in.

I was reading some Daphne du Mairier short stories last week. One of them was packed full of absolutely shocking racist comments. Did I decide she is to be blacklisted and never read by anyone again? No.

No one has written him off tho... they are just talking about these aspects of him