Michael Kelly: Political correctness may be the death of Midsomer

It is slightly out-of-date. Village life is built on conventions established over centuries. Stock characters behave in securely predictable ways. over a run of 13 series. It is an almost smug, self-contained reflection of an English country way of life that never existed but which is tempting. In this idyllic context, brutal crimes can be solved in under an hour without the intrusions of the real world of The Wire.

Now all of this peace has been disturbed by the clumsy intervention of 21st century political correctness. Midsomer producer Brian True-May, in attempting to explain his magic formula of success, made the possibly fatal mistake of responding to the race issue. He dismissed questions about the lack of black actors with the words: "Well, we just don't have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn't be the English village with them; it just wouldn't work."

Quite clear. He has a creative idea of how he conceives the integrity of the series and he wants to preserve that. Yet ITV, "shocked and appalled" at these remarks, has suspended him. It is difficult to envisage hard-nosed TV executives being discomfited by anything so mild. One must assume that this over-reaction is designed to keep them onside with what they conceive of as public opinion, but which is really a tiny lobby of politically motivated over-sensitive nuisances.

The broadcaster was supported by one Wilfred Emmanuel Jones, a black actor and failed Conservative parliamentary candidate - though presumably not for Badger's Drift. He argued that television has a responsibility to ethnic minorities. It has and, as far as I can see, it is fulfilling it admirably - in soaps, in short series dramas and in presenters. Actors and journalists are getting jobs in these areas in their merits.

In the performing arts generally, there is no discrimination; the best rise to the top. Comedian Lenny Henry has played Othello. Now was that because he is a renowned Shakespearean actor or because he is black? And would he be a credible Prince of Denmark?

Aspirants from ethnic minorities cannot be expected to walk into any role. In one of the many recent TV series about Robin Hood - that mythical English hero - we've had Friar Tuck, a Franciscan monk in 13th century England, remember, played by black actor David Harewood.

I am confused.What have I to read into this? Am I to try and work out a back story of how he got there or have I got to act like I'm colour blind?

It is hard enough to try and imagine how Little John (Gordon Kennedy) with his Scottish accent found himself wandering about Nottinghamshire in an era when peasants hardly ever moved five miles from where they were born, than to conceive of someone making his way from the west coast of Africa.

It is absolutely clear from the original tales that all the characters were English and white. The same problem arises with Merlin. The actress playing Gwen (Guinivere) who is going to end up as Queen of Camelot is not white. But the original character was.

Maybe you can take liberties with legends, but when you come to interpreting literary works you surely must stick to what the author wrote. Thus a recent Nancy in an adaptation of Oliver Twist was not white. If Charles Dickens had wanted that, then he would have specified it. And it would have changed the story line.

It is the educational impact of this that is the most concerning. The closest most schoolchildren today are likely to get to the myths, legends and literature that make up our culture is through their adaption for television or the cinema.

My grand-daughter recently enjoyed Gnomeo and Juliet an animated version of the Shakespearian tragedy played by garden gnomes. (They were fighting over the fence that separated their garden, if you really want to know). It has a happy ending instead of a double suicide. I hadn't the heart to give her the facts - secondary school will be early enough.

But many children will go through life confused about the early ethnic make up of their country. How can they then begin to put in context Britain's shameful part in the slave trade, the chronology of the various waves of immigration, the attitudes of the host and migrant communities, and all the various intractable problems of inequality of wealth and the current economic migrations?

Creating historical and cultural misconceptions merely erects barriers to understand and solution.

Not that this sensitivity to race is new. Agatha Christie's novel Ten Little Indians is now published under that title because her choice in 1939 was thought to be offensive. How native, as opposed to African, Americans take that has not been investigated. But these are the complexities and anomalies in which the political correct find themselves mired.

Racism is evil and public policy will be working over the next generation at least to eliminate it from our generally tolerant society. However those desperate for quick solutions do their cause more harm than good by digging up controversy where none existed.

The old Midsomer has had it as a result of this publicity. It will be a challenge for the producer as to how he introduces the now-inevitable ethnic characters.It would really be naughtily tongue-in cheek if the first murder of the sanitised new series was as a result of a race riot in Causton.

If I were one of these television fanatics, I would be organising a protest and writing letters to the characters. But that would be my getting into a fantasy world. Television dramas are not real life. And they seldom reflect it. Is that a crime?