Brian True-May has been suspended after telling the Radio Times the show is “the last bastion of Englishness” and that it “wouldn’t work” if there were racial diversity in the village.
A creator of the hit ITV series Midsomer Murders has been suspended after giving an interview in which he said the show would not work if ethnic minorities were included in the characters.
Brian True-May, who has been with the show since its creation 14 years ago, told Radio Times: “we just don’t have ethnic minorities involved. Because it wouldn’t be the English village with them. It just wouldn’t work.
“Suddenly we might be in Slough. … And if you went into Slough you wouldn’t see a white face there.”
True-May added: “We’re the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way.”
Asked why “Englishness” could not include other races, he said: “Well, it should do, and maybe I’m not politically correct. I’m trying to make something that appeals to a certain audience, which seems to succeed. And I don’t want to change it.”
But True-May said he has not previously been tackled about the programme’s failure to reflect “cosmopolitan” society.
“It’s not British, it’s very English. We are a cosmopolitan society in this country, but if you watch Midsomer you wouldn’t think so.
“I’ve never been picked up on that, but quite honestly I wouldn’t want to change it,” he said.
The audience of the show, which is broadcast to 231 countries around the world, appears to mirror the racial demographic of the cast: a study in 2006 found it to be “strikingly unpopular” with minorities.
Swearing, violence and sex scenes have been banned from the show, but murders with a sexual motive are not.
“If it’s incest, blackmail, lesbianism, homosexuality … terrific, put it in, because people can believe that people can murder for any of those reasons,” True-May told the Radio Times.
True-May has been suspended by production company All3Media pending an internal investigation.
An ITV spokesman said: “We are shocked and appalled at these personal comments by Brian True-May which are absolutely not shared by anyone at ITV.
“We are in urgent discussions with All3Media, the producer of Midsomer Murders, who have informed us that they have launched an immediate investigation into the matter and have suspended Mr True-May pending the outcome.”