Complaint
A listener complained of a scene in this drama where one of the characters criticised another and said he was “a force behind the Brexit vote”. The nature of the character criticised was such that this constituted a “smear” upon Brexit voters. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s editorial standards of impartiality.
Outcome
The drama was part of a series which offered an updated and reimagined version of the work of HP Lovecraft and took many of the original themes of horror, the occult and the supernatural. Listeners in general would have taken it as a work of fiction, and would not have understood the dialogue as expressing anything beyond the opinions of the characters themselves. In the ECU’s judgement, there was no basis for believing the programme to contain a slur against those who had voted for Brexit.
Not Upheld