David Baddiel’s new doc Jews Don’t Count tackles woke brigade’s double standards
HE has built a career on the back of TV comedy, but David Baddiel has returned to our screens tackling something that couldn’t be more serious or personal to him.
The star of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Fantasy Football League is fronting new Channel 4 documentary, Jews Don’t Count.
It looks at how anti-semitism isn’t treated with the same concern as other prejudices in society.
Specifically Baddiel wanted to confront the “progressive lefties” who might claim to equally defend all minorities — and he knew the perfect place to air his argument.
He said: “Channel 4, which I would say, is the most radical of the broadcasters, is a channel that you’d imagine is watched by people who really care about minorities, representation, and inclusion.
“It’s the wokest of all the channels, and my polemic is directed towards those people.
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“The documentary is an examination of a thesis I’ve got — a polemic of the Jews and Jewish identity and the issue of anti-Semitism being low down in the identity politics conversation.”
As part of the show, which airs tonight at 9pm, he met fellow Jews, most from the world of showbiz, to get their viewpoints.
They included David Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller in Nineties sitcom Friends.
When the show was rerun on a streaming service a few years ago, it was slammed by “woke’ viewers for not reflecting the diverse communities of New York City, where it’s set.
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That’s despite the fact that, as a Jew, David represented a very important minority — one that’s an intrinsic part of The Big Apple.
Baddiel said he wanted to present Jews as “a real minority with real issues and a real identity.”
The documentary, which is based on Baddiel’s book of the same name, sees him admitting his own failings by apologising to footballer Jason Lee, whom he famously blacked up to mimic when he was on Fantasy Football League.
He said: “Considering Jason has said in the intervening years that he wanted us to come and talk to him about it, I felt here was an opportunity.
“I should have done it before, of course, but the opportunity was there as part of this project because I’m making a film about discrimination and racism.
Constructive conversation
“It was difficult and uncomfortable for me, and he didn’t let me off in any way, but it was in the end a constructive conversation.”
Baddiel has apologised for the ill-judged move many times to Jason, but this was the first time he had done it face-to-face.
But the comic and writer points out that Leigh Francis has never said sorry to him for his hideous portrayal of Baddiel on his Channel 4 show, Bo Selecta.
That’s despite the comic, better known now as Keith Lemon, publicly apologising to the famous black people he imitated on the same programme, like Craig David.
Baddiel said: “He portrayed me as a grotesque cartoon of a Jew, and the difference in the way that was perceived, I felt I should return to it towards the end of the programme.”
The show also sees him interview the likes of Miriam Margolyes, Stephen Fry and Rachel Riley who each provide their own sides of the argument. Not all agree with Baddiel on everything.
He said: “Sometimes television does that, especially sometimes right-on and politically correct television, it tends to tell those people they are right about the world and that everything should change in the way they want it to.
“I don’t think this does, I think this presents people with arguments they might not have heard before and makes them think, ‘Oh I didn’t know that’, or ‘I didn’t think of it like that’ and that’s what I want.
“Hopefully people watching will find it challenging and interesting and it will lead to a further conversation.”
FESTIVE DUO GO FRUGAL
WE’LL all be tightening our belts this Christmas amid the cost of living crisis so culinary couple John Torode and Lisa Faulkner have added penny-pinching tips to their glossy cooking show.
Ahead of the new series of John & Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, John told me: “ If you want to go and buy a really expensive gammon at Christmas, that’s great, and we talk about how to prepare that.
“But we want to make the food we make accessible. Chicken legs and thighs are incredible too.
“I said to Lisa about doing something with turkey breasts. We filled them with Boursin cheese and wrapped it in bacon, and it goes in a tray in the oven with all the vegetables and Brussels sprouts and stuffing balls.
“You’ve got all the Christmas flavours in a tray bake that is so simple and really cost-effective.”
Lisa added: “We do a supermarket gammon instead of one of those great big pieces you can get from the butcher.”
Tune in for more tips when the ITV series returns on December 3.
CRYING WOLFE’S PACKING IT IN . . .
AMANDA ABBINGTON knows only too well what a rollercoaster showbiz can be.
She stars in Dave’s highly anticipated sci-fi comedy We Are Not Alone next Monday as anti-alien anarchist Caroline Grieves.
But another of her projects has hit the skids. I can reveal her Sky Max crime drama Wolfe won’t be back for a second series despite the six-parter proving popular last year.
Amanda played forensic scientist Dot alongside Babou Ceesay‘s crime investigator Prof Wolfe Kinteh – and it’s the latter who is behind the bad news.
A TV insider said: “Ceesay declined the opportunity to film more episodes, despite series one proving both a ratings and critical success.
“As the show’s titular star, it was felt the series couldn’t proceed without him.”
Sad news for all involved.
MARTIN’ HUSH HU CRUSH
LINDA Robson and Martin Kemp are the unlikely couple that never was.
The Spandau Ballet star recently revealed that while both of them were at the Anna Scher Theatre School in London, he had a secret crush on Linda.
And the Loose Women panelist couldn’t be more chuffed.
She said with a laugh: “It’s lovely! We all grew up on the same street, with Martin and (his brother) GARY, so if only he’d told me at the time, we could have done something about it. He left it too late!”
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Martin made the confession during a celebration of Linda’s 50 years in showbiz.
He said: “We remember Linda as this beautiful little girl. I was madly in love with Linda, as was every other little boy.”