Yes. There's plenty of statistics out there for how biased the casting for film is. As I said, TV is a bit better and especially the BBC as they try to add some diversity. Non-white people will never be over represented when the VAST majority of those in charge are white men. (Also there are plenty of studies to show that white people OVER estimate the representation of non-white people in film and TV - they're far more likely to see a small percentage as 'equal').

Tbh, I think there should have been an Asian companion this time. I know a lot of Asian young women who are dismayed at how little they see characters like themselves on TV and film.

But if you don't think positive representations of different races are important then look at what people are saying about Muhammed Ali today and how he helped young black men.

I wouldnt want a black actor cast either in the role same as a female in the role because simply it wouldnt work. There are plenty of roles on tv where they are the lead actor or actress but I wouldnt want Doctor who changed just to please political correctness just because they think its cool.

Last year was bad enough.

A white male timelord regenerating into a Black Female. If I would face palm and bang my head as hard as I could on the comuter desk I would.

I quite agree.

It would be great to live in a society where everyone got jobs simply based on their ability. That would be an ideal to strive for. Back in the real world, where you have conscious and unconscious biases, you have to do something to balance the injustice and deal with legitimate grievances. As long the majority of jobs are given out by white, middle class, middle aged men, that situation will persist. In all walks of life.

If you are not part of minority it's all too easy to sit back and think that enough has been done.

There's still plenty of outright prejudice out there, but I like to think that we're now at a point where the unconscious, unthinking prejudices are starting to be addressed.

It needs things like a female Doctor or a black James Bond to shine a light on these attitudes.

We're still a hell of a long way away from that happening so maybe we should worry about it when it starts to even remotely be a possibility? Besides, how come it's perfectly fine that TV/film have been overwhelmingly racist and shut out non-white talent for a hundred years and none of you have any problem with that, but the second non-white actors start to be considered for even a minority of roles people start screeching "what about the poor white people!?"


Pick up a history book sometime, if you genuinely think there were no black people in Britain until recently!

Many of us are

I think the fact that Moffat revealed a black actor he almost cast what, like eight years ago? And people seem so offended and angry about tbe suggestion only says to me there is indeed a problem.

Underneath the whole "non-whites should be lucky to get a role at all, how dare they try and take our roles" attitude.

You mean from when the UK had an overwhelmingly white population which has been from - well - the beginning of time.

Even now, blacks are just 3% of the population.

My sister lives in Herefordshire. Do you think she ever sees a black face wandering about? 0.2% of the population of Hereford is black. Yet turn on the TV and they're everywhere. How is that representative of her experience?

I didn't say that did I? (Although until the 1940s the numbers were tiny).

What I said was that the African soldiers in the Roman legions that invaded Britain weren't black.

African Roman Emporer Septimus Severus wasn't black (look at his busts).

The Carthaginians weren't black.

Most of North Africa is not black, the vast majority are Arabs, the only black country in North Africa is South Sudan, and that's because they split from the Northern Arab part of Sudan.

Non-'black' Africans never get a look in on TV unless it's in news reports from Libya or Egypt. Blacks completely dominate the roles given to ethnic minorities in Britain and yet the likes of Lenny Henry still have the nerve whinge about the lack of black faces.

#diversitysoblack

Why is there no discussion about an Asian, arabic or Far Eastern James Bond or Doctor Who? Why is it always a black Bond or a black Doctor Who. All the time.

And then we get risible situations as we had recently with the Hollow Crown series featuring a 47-year-old black woman as a substitute for the 15-year-old, white Maragret of Anjou, or a black Bishop of Carlisle in Richard II. Just stop it, ffs.

I have never said racism was acceptable. What I am against is selecting people based on the colour of their skin rather than on merit.

As I said I couldn't care less what colour skin actors have I am far more interested in story telling rather than saying x% is female y% is non-white. If there is a lack of representation then more should be done to attract talented non-white people ( and other groups where people think there is a lack of representation) who want to become actors to drama schools etc. If people are refusing to hire people because of the colour of the skin (in situations where it doesn't matter) then they should be fired or face disciplinary action. What I am against is specifically choosing someone who is non-white in a programme like Doctor Who where in most situations the colour of the skin makes no difference. If they cast the Doctor in this manner what would the actor think knowing that there may be more capable candidates and that if he was white he wouldn't have been cast.

If it is unacceptable to reject the best actor because they are black why is it acceptable to reject them because they are white? Another issue I have is that people talk about white men as if we are all the same. If people honestly believe in diversity why do they come up with nonsense like that? I have virtually no representation on TV so I do think it is amusing when some people going on about diversity on here think I am represented more than a typical black person.

When Pearl Mackie was revealed there were people who claimed that she was cast primarily because she was black. And, according to Moffat, they were right. Moffat made sure that the most important thing about her is her skin colour.

Totally agree with you. I was hoping the companion (a lead character) this time around would be of Asian origin ie Rakhee Thakrar as the rumours suggested so I was a bit disappointed that this rumour was not true. Maybe an Asian actor for the Doctor then ?

The bloke who plays Dev in "In The Club" would be brilliant as the Doctor. Girls would find him yummy too!

They do make very predictable casting choices 9 times out of 10 it's someone black or mixed race and usually a man.

A bit more imagination is needed, why not a long-haired Chinese guy like the one in Die Hard?

Or a Turkish woman or a Moroccan man or something?

It's not just black or white.

Sacha Dhawan is the guys name. My partner says "Yes please!!!"

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0223527/

Not at all. The guy almost cast 8 years originally got the part because he was good in the role. It fell through and Matt Smith got the job. No one cares about what colour someone's skin is. We don't need "KLAXON! KLAXON! Black Actor recruited to ensure diversity! KLAXON! KLAXON!"

It's the deliberate thrusting of a black actor into roles because they're black that concerns me. Simply because it is downright insulting to the actor involved because I'm sure they would like to get roles because they're brilliant and not because they're black, and also it is insulting to the viewer simply because we are being made aware of a skin colour where in the past we wouldn't really notice as most of us no longer bother ourselves about ethnicity and concentrate more on whether a person is convincing in a role. It doesn't matter if a black man gets the role. But it doesn't need heralding.

They certainly haven't done that on Who, Moffatt has more or less admitted it.

Those three salvage brothers they had on a few years back for example, Ashley Walters and two of the worst actors I've seen since the guy who played Ali on Eastenders.

Nikesh Patel would be another fine choice:

http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/arti...an-Summers.jpg

Bollywood is full of English-speaking actors with plenty of charisma and star-power.

Yet people seem to be under the impression that talent isn't being taken into consideration, when I highly doubt that's the case at all. Ethnicity is something that may be taken into consideration, but talent is still something they determinedly look for, and in one case it looks like Smith won them over on that one (key point most people seem to be pretending didn't happen). Most non-white actors seem to be of a voice that diversity needs addressing, I haven't heard of many that find it insulting.

I'm basically just seeing "I don't care if the actor is black or whatever, I just want somebody good" yet this whole thing blown up over Moffat nearly casting a black man.

In my case I am not against what happened in the audition for the Doctor which seems to have been the case of a non-white person being the first choice. What I am against is what happened for the recent companion which is they chose to have a non-white person before auditions happened. I could understand it for a role that needed a non-white person for realism or historical accuracy but why refuse to have a white companion before you even had auditions to find who was most suited to the role?

No. You're missing the point. The argument seems to originate from Moffat's intentions to bring colour of a person's skin to the fore. It's the "We must have a black actor" or "Wouldn't it be good if black actors played both the Doctor's role and companion's role?" lines that annoy me. It would come across now, after he's said it, that the actors in the role got those roles because of their skin colours and not because of their skills.

When Mickey Smith and Martha Jones were cast, no one cared one jot. Because there was no heralding or emphasis made on their ethnicity. People just enjoyed them in the roles because of their performances and their importance in the telling of the story. Had Paterson Joseph got the part of The Doctor in 2010 without a "we need a black doctor" comment, no one would bat an eyelid. But, because Moffat has gone on and on about diversity and his desire to include as many black actors as possible in DW by making that point, it becomes more about skin colour than it does about an actors talent, which is a shame. I hope Chris Chibnall restores a bit of sanity to the show, because had Moffat stayed on for another year, then the show might have been irreversibly damaged.

If you read the full interview, Moffat was asked a straight question by the interviewer and gave a straight answer. You might not agree with the answer, but that's what happened. Whether that is Moffat "banging on and on" about diversity....personally don't think it is. Indeed, this is the first time I've seen him address the issue as far as I can remember. He says that the show is diverse anyway, but questions whether he himself could've done better....

And I'm a Lambert/Lloyd/Letts/Hinchcliffe/Bits of JNT, etc fanboi before anyone has a dig!

Actually don't mind, really.

Where has this obsession with enforced "diversity" come from? Moffat was quoted as saying "We must do better", "Two non-white leads would be amazing".

This comment to me absolutely reeks of the sort of racism which seems to be becoming acceptable more and more these days; the idea that white people in roles = bad.

And then there was a desperate attempt at virtue signalling to the race-obsessed SJW crowd. "We offered the role to a black actor" reads to me like "We tried! We really tried! But alas, we had to settle on these white people" as if white people are inherently less valuable because of "privilege" or whatever.

I think Moffat should be ashamed of this comment because it directly undermines Peter Capaldi's position in the role of the Doctor. It makes it sound like Moffat thinks Capaldi is less deserving of the role than the unnamed black actor on the sole basis of his skin colour.

This is not being progressive. This is good old fashioned racism, pure and simple. I don't give a damn about edgy new definitions such as "Racism = power + privilege", making value judgements about people based solely on their race is racism.

I'm not anti-diversity either. Of course there should be roles written for minority individuals in television programmes. But a character should not be defined by the fact they are a minority. They need to be 3 dimensional characters defined by the fact they are human with human hopes and ambitions and human feelings and desires.

This sad virtue signalling really needs to stop. I'm getting tired of hearing things like "Oh look at us! We cast a lesbian woman of colour! Look how diverse we are! Aren't we great!?". If you're going to write a character who's black, female and lesbian then stop making a song and dance about how diverse the character is and start thinking how you can make the character a memorable and relatable individual who is far more than just a list of descriptors.

If the next Doctor to be cast happened to be black, I wouldn't care, but if by the end of his time in the role he was remembered as "the black Doctor" rather than "the Thirteenth Doctor" then I'd be inclined to think something had gone wrong somewhere.

Bravo that man!!! Excellent post. If I may add, that this year's Oscars furore irritated the pants off me. All this "black actors not being nominated is shameful" nonsense was infuriating. Here's a controversial viewpoint: maybe, just maybe, the films they were in were crap and the nominated white actors all performed better in roles suited to them in films that were better created? And, one black actor commented on how he was annoyed that black actors always get cast as the bad guys. Well, here's another controversial viewpoint: Don't accept the role then!

When I watch such fantastic films like The Color Purple, I never think "gosh, these black actors are terrific aren't they?" I always think what a damn good film it is and how deserving it is of the awards it received. Why must black actors be labelled as black? How can we ever achieve true equality if emphasis is always made about a person's skin colour or sexuality? It isn't necessary. And now, the BBC are recruiting for ethnics only to try and create a diverse workplace. When you watch BBCtv, it would be hard not to see ethnicity because there really is a good representation of diversity on BBCtv already, it's just a shame that the BBC don't realise this themselves.