Midsomer Murders race row boss quits show

John Nettles, who plays DCI Barnaby in Midsomer Murders
12 April 2012

The Midsomer Murders producer who sparked a race row by saying the show "wouldn't work" if there were more ethnic minority characters quit the programme today.

Brian True-May prompted an internal probe at All3Media and was suspended after claiming part of the ITV1 show's appeal was due to an absence of ethnic minorities.

A statement on its website said he had apologised for any offence caused and would be reinstated but ITV confirmed that he had agreed to step down at the end of "the current production run".

Mr True-May had told Radio Times: "We just don't have ethnic minorities involved, it wouldn't be the English village with them. It just wouldn't work.

"Suddenly we might be in Slough. Ironically, Causton (a main centre of population in the show) is supposed to be Slough. And if you went into Slough you wouldn't see a white face there. We're the last bastion of Englishness and I want to keep it that way."

Midsomer Murders, based on the books by Caroline Graham, was launched in 1997, has run for 14 series and has featured 251 deaths, 222 of which were murders.

It is broadcast to 231 countries around the world but - mirroring the way it avoids portraying racial variation - studies have found that ethnic minorities avoid it. A report found the series "strikingly unpopular" with minorities.

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