It was from a 2009 episode called Vile Victorians and it upset a lot of people including Piers Morgan, Andrew Neill and the Daily Mail, so it must be doing something right.
Caution - this link will take you to The Daily Mail
It piqued my interest because as a kids TV writer, it seemed strange for so many grown men - and it usually is men - to get enraged by an 11 year old sketch, which many children have enjoyed and - crucially - understood for years.
Link to some frankly ridiculous Twitter comments.
No matter that this sketch has been broadcast many times to zero protest. No matter that it's from a show called Horrible Histories - the clue's in the name. No matter that Horrible Histories also trashes the 'Vicious Vikings' and the 'Rotten Romans'- maybe other countries have thicker skin, or aren't in the middle of an identity crisis.
We now live in a country so past irony that The Sun can create a poster celebrating Brexit in which the fictional character Alan Partridge is apparently a Great Britain, while his very real creator Steve Coogan is a shattered Remainer.
Also on the poster and in the Great British camp are Mr Blobby, Basil Brush and Mr Bean. As a writer for at least two of those characters - Mr Blobby writes his own material - I think I can confidently say Mr Bean is apolitical at best and if I had to pin Basil down I'd have him a little 'Countryside Alliance-y', but then again - THEY'RE BOTH MADE UP, SO HOW WOULD I KNOW!?
Noted Great Briton and anti-EU advocate Mr Bean. Apparently.
Regardless it's obviously fine to give fictional kids TV characters British values and agendas to reinforce your political point, but don't you dare put actual facts in front of the kiddiwinks for fear of being labelled unpatriotic. Or maybe The Sun poster is clearly a joke and I shouldn't take it so seriously, in which case... Horrible Histories!
The only thing that's changed in the 11 years since this sketch was first broadcast is that we now live in age where we no longer have a need for experts and facts are apparently negotiable depending on your world view. That and they got a British born Asian to introduce it. Can't have people with a darker skin tone telling us OUR - and their, but lets not worry about that - history can we?
Another criticism levelled at the sketch is that is lacks perspective, it doesn't say anything about all the good things the Victorians and Britain did. Which is true, it doesn't, but then it's a comedy sketch for children, it makes one point and it makes it very well, it's how sketches work. You never hear of any of the perfectly healthy parrots the pet shop owner sold in the Dead Parrot sketch do you? Where's the perspective? Next you'll be telling me that 'Allo 'Allo isn't representative of life in German occupied France and not all Dublin matriarchs are men in drag.
Life in German occupied France not all bad. Apparently.
In the scheme of things it's a silly thing to get annoyed about, but as a children's writer I find it very worrying. It points to an insidious trend. If the future of writing for children means passing some strange Daily Mail criteria for what is and isn't acceptable then we're all screwed.
Children are happy to be challenged, happy to be provoked, happy to question and happy to think for themselves. The evidence of the past few days seems to suggest that certain adults are not. We should always remind ourselves that we're writing for the children who are happy to explore different perspectives, not the grown ups who would rather we reinforce a particular world view.
On a wider note, for anybody who creates anything, if these angry, seemingly educated people feel so threatened by an 11 year old sketch about Queen Victoria on kids TV, just imagine how they'll feel when faced with more grown up criticism on a news show. Or maybe they'll just select favourable journalists from now on.
Regardless, the shouting voices are getting louder. Post Brexit you're either with us or against us. In an age where a slightly peculiar decade old sketch in which Queen Victoria has sugar poured on her head can cause such indignant rage I worry for anybody who dares to create anything with a dissenting voice, no matter how light hearted it may be.
Ciaran Murtagh's work can currently be seen every Friday at 6pm on CBBC on Crackerjack. Follow the link to see an unashamedly apolitical Basil Brush doing his thing.
5 comments:
Applauding from afar for all the points you've made in this post - and for the chance to hear for myself The Song that I'd read was the cause of a media frenzy. (It was much as I'd imagined it!)
Thank you, Ciaran.
"Or maybe they'll just select favourable journalists from now on."
Fact has overtaken you, Ciaran. Our ruler, Cummings, is now trying to prevent journalists who might not give an entirely fawning and boot-licking account of his plans from attending press conferences at Number 10.
Like Penny, I applaud what you say. God above knows what kind of impossible history Morgan, Neil and the Daily Heil want us to believe in, but we'd have to have our brains removed to manage it.
Only a small percentage of account holders actually use Twitter on a daily basis now apparently. They tend to be the shouters at both ends of the political spectrum, trying to get themselves noticed. The papers grasp onto the stories to confect outrage and fake paper-selling controversy that few people actually buy into. As their audience falls they confect ever-more ludicrous 'we are outraged' nonsense to get people clicking onto their sites. Shouters on the left are also complicit in this cacophony of censorship click-bait screaming, trying to censor historical authors etc. The rest of us are walking away from it all, I hope. Weird times. Very weird times.
Speaking as someone who for several years went round primary schools in Somerset dressed in drag wearing all six crowns for Henry"s wives, with forty minutes iof bad jokes disguised as history I can only remember that children are looking for laughs, as we all should be. Politics just makes them yawn, as too often, it makes all of us in between the frustration and rage. Too many
people have forgotten to laugh and when it hits stuff for children, we know democracy"s screwed!
"Yes Minister"(political satire British sitcom written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn between 1980-1983) — In this episode : Why Britain Joined the European Union ?
The dialogue explains everything:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iHSwA1SwE
Post a Comment