Diversity Study

Here’s an article on that diversity study I mentioned in class today. “BBC1’s Question Time and Mock the Week have been criticised in a report about television diversity for featuring “token women” on their panels. The panel shows were singled out, along with BBC2’s QI, for failing to put enough female faces on screen. Commissioned by the BBC for the Cultural Diversity Network, the report said there was a tendency in drama, comedy and entertainment programmes to feature older people as “peripheral or token figures”. Viewers described them as “props for other stories” rather than a central character. There was praise for characters such as the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey, Patrick Trueman in EastEnders and Coronation Street’s Betty Turpin for their positive portrayal of older people. But there was a mixed verdict on another BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing, with concern that older contestants such as Ann Widdecombe were only being included as “figures of fun”… A panel of industry experts who took part in the survey acknowledged that TV programmes can sometimes portray older people as the “adorable idiot”.”