BBC’s politically correct “Troy: Fall of a City” a ratings disaster

Article first appeared on Hellenic Insider, by Michael Nevradakis…

Despite the BBC’s best efforts at historical and cultural revisionism, audiences in Britain have turned their back on “Troy: Fall of a City,” a co-production of the BBC and Netflix. Based on the ancient Greek legend, there was one significant difference in this new televised production: ancient Greek hero Achilles was black. Of course, we are told that this is “what Homer would have wanted.”

In spite of the great lengths to which the BBC and Netflix attempted to inject “diversity” into this famous ancient Greek story, it seems audiences were not impressed. Indeed, it looks like British audiences were particularly unimpressed with a recent episode featuring a bisexual, interracial threesome which took place on a beach, involving a white woman and two black men.

Starting out with an audience of 3.2 million viewers for its first episode, ratings have since shrunk by one half, as the audience for “Troy” tumbled to 1.6 million for its fourth and most recent episode, despite a prime Saturday evening timeslot. Even the initial audience of 3.2 million viewers fell short of the five-plus million viewers other programs have attracted in the same timeslot.

This despite a per-episode budget of £16 million, making “Troy: Fall of a City” potentially a very expensive ratings flop. In spite of the never-ending quest to impose political correctness and a specific worldview from above, it seems that audiences, so far at least, have a different opinion.

Cultural difference and diversity is truly a great and beautiful thing. However, while there is plenty of room in our society to creatively engage with culture and with diversity, it is clear that some of these attempts reflect a specific politically correct, identity politics-driven agenda.

In such a context, Greece, representing a European culture of ancient “dead white men” (ancient Greece’s female figures and heroines, who were revered, are apparently overlooked) represents a prime target for politically correct revisionism, in particular at a time when Greece finds itself perhaps in its weakest position in its modern history, nominally ruled by a “radical leftist” government that, along with its supporters, decries anything that is “too Greek” as chauvinistic and “fascist.” This while the country’s national sovereignty and independence have been steadily stripped away during the years of crisis, austerity, and the memorandums.