Midsomer Murders star defends ITV 'trigger warnings'
Neil Dudgeon says he doesn't 'want to upset anyone'
Lorraine Kelly blasts Midsomer Murders trigger warning
The star of ITV’s Midsomer Murders, Neil Dudgeon, has defended the use of “trigger warnings” on his show saying, “We don’t want to upset anyone”.
The warnings, such as “contains crime scenes” and/or “contains violent killings” have been put on the entire back catalogue of episodes on ITVX, and ITV3.
In one episode in which Morris dancers perform in blackface, the warning was “contains traditional dancing that might offend some viewers”.
Dudgeon, 63, who has done more than 50 episodes, initially joked, “Well, it’s accurate!”
He continued: “Somebody, somewhere feels that this might be helpful to some people.
“You don't want to upset people. There may be some who don't know the name of the programme and have never seen it.
"We're just being careful with peoples' feelings. We don’t want to send anybody off into any sort of a traumatic episode.”
Midsomer Murders is showing the rest of its 23rd series, with two episodes, one starring acting legend Tom Conti.
“He turned up fresh off the set of Oppenheimer, in which he played Einstein.
“The next minute he’s acting opposite me, playing a senior policeman. A truly wonderful actor.”
Getting actors of a certain age is more difficult now.
“When I started, there were lots of older actors, sort of the generation above me who would do the show and I was meeting loads of heroes and stars.
“As I've gotten older, and that pool above me is kind of sadly thinning out, it's getting harder to get those older, starry artists to work anymore. It’s a shame.”
Midsomer Murders, ITV, Tues, 8.15pm
