Comments | phable: The BBC's Adrian Chiles tells us how women detectives should be spoken to.

phable

The BBC's Adrian Chiles tells us how women detectives should be spoken to.

Apr 03, 2010 13:25

Oh Adrian Chiles, you charming, progressive individual. On last night's The One Show, he took a moment to let us all know how women detectives ought to be spoken to. I thought it was only fair to give his comments as wide a distribution as possible, so I took the liberty of uploading the clip to YouTube ( Read more... )

Comments 8

kathie_d April 3 2010, 13:48:13 UTC

phable April 3 2010, 17:42:03 UTC

Haven't seen it. Probably, though. Gritty cop shows aren't known for being massively PC, are they?

kathie_d April 3 2010, 18:37:48 UTC

phable April 3 2010, 18:44:59 UTC

Good, good.

sensaes April 3 2010, 16:44:26 UTC

Er, you do realise that it's just promotional puff for the return of Ashes To Ashes, right?

phable April 3 2010, 17:18:51 UTC

Yeah. It was the comment Chiles made after they played the quote that I took offence to: "That's how women detectives should be treated." He could've chosen to be funny and at the same time dismissive of the quote's misogyny, but instead he explicitly agreed with the sentiment. It wound me up because this sort of thing goes in subconsciously; makes it just a little harder for youngsters to pursue a traditionally opposite-sex profession and makes it just a little easier for everyone else to dismiss them if they do.

sensaes April 3 2010, 19:08:49 UTC

In context (being all chummy-matey and a bit laddish with Phil), he probably thought he was being funny. But Adrian's always been an awkward misfit at the Beeb, and nobody seems to know quite what to do with him. God knows how many years he winged it on Working Lunch before people noticed how clueless he was. His real niche was as a sports presenter on Radio 5 Live, but he kept failing to make the switch to sports telly (Sky won't touch him with the proverbial bargepole). The downmarket subNationwide revival The One Show will take anyone, largely on the flimsy basis that the BBC still regard it as an "experimental" format.

Ironically, the running social commentary thread of Life On Mars (PC methods applied in a '70s setting) was actually diluted in the '80s-set Ashes To Ashes because, post-Scarman and with a female lead, the targets just seemed quaint rather than anachronistic. Neither show could be said to represent a recruitment poster for the force, but Chiles - in all likelihood - is more swayed by Hunt's Audi and Sweeney- ( ... )

ms_wanderlust April 3 2010, 17:55:04 UTC

I complained too. The man has the intellectual capacity of a cheese (I think that's from Blackadder) and the intelligence of a....I don't know. All the things I can think of are more intelligent.... It's a sad world when opinions like this are aired on prime time TV.