Oh for goodness sake, don't be ridiculous
The BBC has given in to mounting pressure and pulled an Agatha Christie drama from the Christmas schedule after one of its stars was accused of rape and sexual assault.
Ordeal By Innocence was due to air on Boxing Day with Ed Westwick in one of the lead roles but the BBC announced on Friday that the transmission would be postponed while Westwick is under investigation.
Two women have accused the British actor of attacking them at his US home in 2014. He denies the claims.
In a statement, the BBC said: "These are serious allegations which Ed Westwick has strenuously denied. The BBC is not making any judgment but until these matters are resolved we will not include Ordeal by Innocence in the schedules," the statement said.
Rape in an important and serious crime. Allegations of it must indeed be investigated. Any employer is at liberty – or at least should be – to not hire someone being so investigated, as should be true of any other reason they desire to hire or not. No, due process doesn't count on who gets hired, it's up to the employer.
But the use or not use of something that has already been made as a result of a rape allegation? Even a conviction that would be ridiculous. Should we not listen to Chuck Berry because of that Mann Act conviction? Should we not eat the bread made by the baker being dragged away in chains?
Seriously, the drama's been made, the millions spent, he'll not gain anything from it being shown as he's also already been paid. We're rather obviously over the hill and into the hysteria stage, aren't we?
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30 thoughts on "Oh for goodness sake, don't be ridiculous"
bloke in spain November 11, 2017 at 8:19 am
Yes. "BBC has given in to mounting pressure not to fritter away so much of the TV taxpayers' money" would be a better opening line.
MC November 11, 2017 at 8:33 am
So if one of the builders who works on your extension gets arrested for rape you ought to camp in the garden until he's cleared?
The story implies that if this actor is eventually found guilty, this show will never air. A shocking waste of taxpayers' money.
Also, mounting pressure from who exactly? A few arseholes on twatter? Someone writing in the Graun?
Paul Rain November 11, 2017 at 8:40 am
I hate this cunt as much as any man forced to watch Gossip Girl by a vapid thot does, but frankly, I would be surprised if these allegations have any basis in reality. Doesn't exactly fit the Weinstein/Polanski/Spacey/Sheen mold.
Maybe he didn't pull out on command, but that's hardly the same thing as 'rape'.
Anon November 11, 2017 at 9:06 am
Why has Roman Polanski (who actually been convicted) got a free pass all these years? No one has even complained about his films being screened. Is it because he raped a non actress and so it is ok?
Justin November 11, 2017 at 9:14 am
Ordeal By Innocence – no irony there at all.
David Moore November 11, 2017 at 9:18 am
"Why has Roman Polanski (who actually been convicted) got a free pass all these years?"
Because it wasn't rape rape.
Bloke on M4 November 11, 2017 at 9:23 am
BBC executives are paranoid about their future, so any exec is covering their arses. No-one wants to be in a media storm at a place like that which might find that you didn't do your job properly.
Bloke in Wales November 11, 2017 at 9:41 am
BBC is victim of lefty hysteria?
Sympathy level: zero
JuliaM November 11, 2017 at 10:02 am
We mounted that crest of the hill ages ago, and are now freewheeling to the bottom.
Rob November 11, 2017 at 10:13 am
That's one programme down. How to get the rest of the schedule off air?
Andy in Japan November 11, 2017 at 10:21 am
See also the story of how Ridley Scott is digitally erasing Kevin Spacey from his new film.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/9/16627506/kevin-spacey-christopher-plummer-ridley-scott-all-the-money-in-the-world
Winston Smith and O'Brian would approve of how easy it is to make someone an unperson.
Theophrastus November 11, 2017 at 10:21 am
"A shocking waste of taxpayers' money."
The BBC is trying to economise: only one helicopter followed Prit Patel's car from the airport to Downing Street…
DBC Reed November 11, 2017 at 10:53 am
Dunno what Chuck Berry has got to do with it: his Mann Act conviction centred on his giving a lift over a State line to an underage girl who said she was 21.
Nobody was going to stop buying his records often taking much trouble to seek them out.Mick Jagger sent money to Chess records in Chicago to buy a key LP and it was this that ingratiated him with old acquaintance Keith Richards.
The companies now are trying to airbrush abusive actors (with zilch originality and talent) because they fear their films will lose popularity and money.People in the 60's were so desperate for proper rock'n' roll , then called rhythm and blues, that they were prepared to give Berry the considerable benefit of the doubt , considering the racist milieu.
Mr Womby November 11, 2017 at 11:11 am
So who's going to be fronting Match of the Day tonight now that Lineker's been outed as a nasty tax-avoiding person?
John Square November 11, 2017 at 12:32 pm
@Womby
That chick that got Mark Sampson sacked as England women's football manager, I'd wager.
Ticks all the boxes, and she's free at the moment (none of her ex-teammates are talking to her).
Gamecock November 11, 2017 at 1:55 pm
The Left has discovered that Allegations™ can be a very useful tool.
dearieme November 11, 2017 at 2:02 pm
"So who's going to be fronting Match of the Day tonight …?"
How about that slightly strange tall bloke who won't work on Sundays? He's OK. Or Jermaine Jenas. Or Neville the Lesser. Or Danny Murphy.
Or they could hire back from ITV that chap Lee something or other – former Arsenal full back, talks sense and doesn't talk too much. Or, also from ITV, Hoddle. Top player, manager at decent level, a sharp eye for the game, and articulate enough. Maybe he'd be best of all. I vote for Hoddle. How are his tax affairs?
Mr Ecks November 11, 2017 at 2:35 pm
Justin–"Ordeal by Innocence"–indeed the Universe is taking the piss. Which is all such nonsense deserves.
However there maybe a bright side to all this .
If OBI is anything like the last CM BBC travesty of an Agatha Christie story "And then there were None" (and none would have been better) that they expelled onto the Christmas schedules two years ago then we have had a blessed escape. Or the (non-Christie) equally CM "Witness for the Prosecution" shite they sprayed on to last Boxing Day's TV tripe-lists.
If we are to be spared some of the BBCs propaganda bullshit by the action of other CM propaganda bullshit all I can say is "Merry Christmas and God bless non-leftists everyone".
Bloke in North Dorset November 11, 2017 at 2:42 pm
We need l list of actors to be targeted and some women who are sympathetic to the cause.
dearieme, isn't Hodder an unperson because of his views on the disabled having been naught in a past life? Or has he been forgiven?
So Much For Subtlety November 11, 2017 at 2:52 pm
Should we not listen to Chuck Berry because of that Mann Act conviction?
Well putting cameras in the toilets didn't help either.
It is all very Chinese Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution like isn't it? Everyone has to draw a line between them and anyone the activists accuse of a crime.
I like Berry. But he was a sociopathic low life. I don't know which side has the more sociopaths here but I can't help but wish a pox on both their houses.
PF November 11, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Rob wins.
David Moore – "Because it wasn't rape rape."
And, to be blunt, when it comes down to it a lot of one ethnic origin see a fellow ethnic in trouble for a crime committed against someone outside their community and they do not immediately rush to condemn their fellow ethnic. Just as Dominic Strauss-Kahn was defended by people you would expect to condemn him – Leftists like Jack Lang and Bernard-Henri Lévy. Leftist feminists like Michèle Sabban.
In their hatred of Trump, the hard left has turned in a feeding frenzy on anyone who shows the slightest trace of blood in the water. So the people who everyone knew were sexually assaulting people can't do it any more. Although I do worry that so many of them like getting pretty women into their hotel rooms and then whacking off. What is the point? To be crude, isn't it a waste of a perfectly good erection?
jgh November 11, 2017 at 3:42 pm
The BBC is not making any judgment but until these matters are resolved we've judged him unsuitable to appear in our programme.
Very Orwellian.
Pcar November 11, 2017 at 8:55 pm
In a statement, the BBC said: "These are serious allegations which Ed Westwick has strenuously denied. The BBC is not making any judgment but until these matters are resolved we will not include Ordeal by Innocence in the schedules,"
By pulling "Ordeal by Innocence" they are making a judgement – Guilty until proved innocent.
Paul Rain November 11, 2017 at 9:05 pm
SMFS: Are you suggesting that such people would lie through their teeth and blame genuinely marginalized groups, as they did in the case of Leo Frank?
http://www.socialmatter.net/2017/11/10/myth-20th-century-episode-43-blood-libel-leo-frank/
I'm shocked- shocked.
Dr Cromarty November 12, 2017 at 11:03 am
Pretty sure the BBC has shown Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist and Chinatown
Richard November 12, 2017 at 8:51 pm
"Should we not eat the bread made by the baker being dragged away in chains?"
Depends on what he's done, but I don't think I'd eat his ring doughnuts.
Yes, the people that BBC types socialise with. Bubble mentality again; they'd be shocked to discover that most people don't care.
Wonko the sane November 13, 2017 at 12:38 pm
Actually, I still listen to Gary Glitter without losing any sleep over it. Don't believe that is a crime.
Virtue signalling is a crime against humanity. Discuss.