Neighbours TV show &squo;too white&squo; | The Daily Telegraph

HIT Australian TV soap Neighbours in which Kylie Minogue first found fame has been branded "too white" by black and Asian viewers in Britain.

A report by the nation's racial equality chief found many ethnic viewers felt were under-represented in some of Britain's most popular shows.

Neighbours, which is screened on the Five network, and the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French were singled out for being "all white".

Other popular soaps including the BBC's Eastenders and ITV's Coronation Street also came under attack for including stereotypical characters such as Asian shopkeepers and black single mums.

However reality TV shows including the X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing were commended because people who appeared on those shows were defined by their talent not their ethnicity.

Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman Trevor Phillips said many of Britain's major broadcasters remained "hideously white" when choosing programs.

"I don't think anybody here is saying British TV is racist," Phillips said.

"There are minority faces on TV, but it's that we're not quite getting it right, because we do not really have any minority decision makers.

"White people who live next door to Asian neighbours will see a representation of an ethnic minority family and they will say, 'I don't think so, it doesn't ring true with the people I know'."

The report was commissioned by Channel 4 following last year's race row involving reality show Celebrity Big Brother.

During the program, screened early in 2007, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty found herself under attack from two fellow female contestants.

A senior non-executive BBC director, Dr Samir Shah, also recently accused the public broadcaster of rampant tokenism in its programs.



What do you guys reckon?

Test test

The US would get a failing grade compared to these shows. The US ACTIVELY puts down Asian men and objectifies Asian women, and makes black women appear ghetto and aggressive.

hey guys d/l tvuplayer and tune into ChannelNewsAsia to get news read to you by asian crewmembers...good for that quick fix...if u are tired of whitewashed television..

The vicar of Dibley is understandable its set in a rural village where the vast majority of people who live in rural villages are white. I don't think we have a right to comment on Neighbours at least they had some asian people on it now and then I miss Joe Mangol.

A vegetarian who eats fish is like a pacifist who occasionally punches a small child in the face!

neighbours is australian show so i dont know what the brits are whinging about

it would be very hard to write for an asian character in show because all he/she would do is study for uni and not sleep around and get some girl pregnant.

say ahhhh...

Then it's our little duty to make those girls become pregnant or at least be funny as possible till they laugh their pants off.

there was a few asian girls in it!

they were doctors, nurses or bitches!

adrenalin is my choice of drug

It's a boring show anyway, oops did I say that out loud :P

The OC>>>>>> Neighbours.

And Neighbours being too 'white'? I think so.
There's hardly any characters who aren't Caucasian, except this guy who looks somewhat Asian.

There was this episode where they went to a Japanese restaurant, and the old mama was being a TOTAL racist ("What kind sewage is this?" -miso soup. "You and your tin cars" -lol... now that's REALLY ignorant i reckon) cuz of what the Japs did in WW2. But it was downplayed by the family members, cuz she's oh well, lived through the 'hard times'... pftttt.

Australia's supposed to be 'multicultural', right? Then why should racism be downplayed? That's wrong.

Heck, but still it beats the crap out of NZ shows, which are just tryhards and imitations of American shows. Or, cheap ethnic jokes that are new to NZ society.