The BBC’s head of creative diversity made a valid point about Idris Elba’s Luther. That’s not how it was reported, says film and TV writer Ellen E Jones
Miranda Wayland is facing criticism for saying
Idris Elbaâs popular crime series âLutherâ is not âauthenticâ because the character doesn’t have any Black friends.Â
Per Entertainment Tonight, speaking at the digital MIPTV conference Wayland explained, âWhen [âLutherâ] first came out everybody loved the fact that Idris Elba was in there â a really strong, Black character lead. We all fell in love with him. Who didnât, right? But after you got into about the second series you got kind of like, âOK, he doesnât have any Black friends, he doesnât eat any Caribbean food, this doesnât feel authentic.â
In insisting on rigid racial stereotypes, progressives could end up segregating drama and storytelling
16 April 2021 • 4:15pm
This has been a week of confused and confusing messages on diversity. Just as Hank Azaria expressed his desire to personally apologise to “to every single Indian person” in the US for stereotypical representation of South Asians in
The Simpsons, the BBC’s Diversity Chief appeared to launch an attack on the crime drama Luther for being only superficially diverse because its lead character doesn’t conform with stereotypes, such as eating Caribbean food.
There is just so much that is problematic about Miranda Wayland’s remarks that it’s hard to know where to begin. A quick Google search reveals the show s star, Hackney-born Idris Elba, is of West and South-West African heritage, being born to Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean parents. Yet to “feel authentic” to Wayland, his character would need to be seen eating Caribbean food.
Laura Radford/HBO
International TV executives point to the success of shows like BBC/HBO Max drama I May Destroy You of how diversity can give storytelling an edge.
Building on momentum from social movements like Black Lives Matter, broadcasters worldwide are pushing for more inclusivity: It s a never-ending goal.
The global television industry has finally got the memo on diversity.
The push to make small-screen storytelling, in front and behind the camera, more representative of the variety in the societies it reflects, has been an activist goal for years. Thanks to several top-down actions by major networks and streamers, it is starting to become a reality, said industry executives attending this week s digital MIPTV market on international television.
What is there to say about the claim that John Luther, the police officer protagonist of the BBC TV series
Luther, “lacks authenticity” as a black character? Miranda Wayland, the corporation’s diversity lead, has sparked controversy after saying that the character, played by Idris Elba, was not an authentic black protagonist because “he doesn’t eat any Caribbean food” and doesn’t have any black friends. It s a strange point. If authenticity is the issue, then it is not clear why Luther – played by a British man with a father from Sierra Leone and a mother from Ghana – would eat Caribbean food anyway. Elba is not from the Caribbean! In terms of authenticity, that he is never seen eating jerk chicken is some way behind it taking five series for Luther to be arrested for all the corner-cutting, deals with serial killers and various unprofessional antics he gets up to.