It came as something of a surprise to read a number of complaints accusing a contestant on Come Dine with Me of making racist remarks – it’s not a programme that normally attracts anything other than warm compliments! Having been involved in the review of Celebrity Big Brother in 2007, I am very aware that Channel 4 takes all complaints about racism or other discriminatory treatment within its programming very seriously indeed, so I was interested to find out more about what had provoked this reaction from audiences.
Part of the success of Come Dine With Me is down to the variety of people taking part and the interaction this provokes – some contestants on the series can be outspoken and provocative, especially once the wine starts to flow! However, the show is carefully reviewed before broadcast to ensure that anything said by a contestant is acceptable and justifiable. These judgements are based on a number of factors, including the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, previous experience, the expectations of the audience for that programme and the context of the programme itself.
When I spoke to the commissioning editor of the series, she observed that the most successful contestants are those who prepare the food they think their guests will most enjoy, and she felt that, on this occasion, this particular contestant was aiming to do just that when she made a comment about the strength of the curry she was planning to serve to her guests. This comment caused a small flurry of complaints, but it was directly related to her food preparation for that evening, and her perception of her guests’ tastes and preferences – during the previous meal, her fellow diners had indicated that they did not enjoy chillies in their food to the same extent that she did. Given this context and the fact the comment was delivered in a light-hearted manner, the team previewing the episode did not think that it was either intended to be racially abusive or discriminatory or would be interpreted as such by the audience. And although the number of complaints was surprising for this programme, it was still very small when measured against the benchmark of something like Celebrity Big Brother.
But it just goes to show that racism is still an extremely sensitive issue for our audiences, which I think is very well understood by everyone at Channel 4. The channel’s head of daytime was at pains to reassure me that she will be keeping a very close eye out for any issues of this sort across all the programmes she is responsible for.
Update: Ofcom’s Broadcast Bulletin – Issue 135 (published 8 June 2009) notes that Ofcom have decided not to uphold the 35 complaints they received in relation to this episode of Come Dine with Me. The result is listed on p.39 of the document.
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While some people want to duck their heads the water and pretend racism doesnt exsist the fact of the matter is.. it does… Does it mean we have to curb every remark we make to make sure we dont offend everyone? Yes it does!
The problem I find with this quandry is that alot of people dont think about what they are saying before is spills out of their mouths.
Example: Those jeans look good today.
Good interprtation.. Thank you! I’ve been trying to lose weight and obviously its worked!
Bad interpretation.. Great, saying they normally look awful?
This in the real world happens all the time. Interpritation is the mother of all c**k ups in this world (hence lots of religious wars over different adaptions of a latin script).
When it comes to racism its hard to know what is deemed racist and what isnt. Until a hand book is released with the definitive does and donts in the world according to political correctness then we all have to make our own judgements but at the end of the day if we spend all our time making sure we dont offend anyone then we would live in bubbles and not speak at all.
I take offence when someone says Steven Speilberg is a great director but I would never complain about it as it is at the end of the day an opinion.
Some people have opinions we dont like.. You either have to learn to live with these people or teach them better. But simply complaining someone has a narrow outlook wont resolve the situation.
If you want to complain that someone is being racist firstly look at how you react to racist comments that arent aimed at yourself.
If a friend calls me queer its funny but from a stranger its an attack. Have I learnt to deal with this? Yes because I know people who dont know me are reacting from ignorance and if anything I feel sorry for them.
Rant over.
Update: Ofcom’s Broadcast Bulletin – Issue 135 (published 8 June 2009) notes that Ofcom have decided not to uphold the 35 complaints they received in relation to this episode of Come Dine with Me. The result is listed on p.39 of the document.
Why do so many TV shows have to introduce so much canned laughter when on many occasions the spoken word/s is not funny enough to raise a laugh. And why so much repetition in programmes which are in a series i.e The Biggest Loser when the first 5 minutes simply repeats what has been on in previous programmes. We know, otherwise we wouldn’t be watching it. Likewise with extreme dreams with Ben Fogle, there was so much repetition that the 5 daily half hour programmes could so easily have been condensed into 3 half hour programmes and the viewer would have missed nothing at all.
Why is there a media frenzy about Michael Jackson’s death? I thought that he was a good singer but he was no saint. It is really disturbing that people seem that to overlook the fact that he was accused of child abuse and various other things. Are the media not whipping up emotion like they did when Princess Diana died. I find it really very disturbing that the lines between right and wrong are becoming increasingly blurred.
Love Anna
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