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From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Crown Jewels:  Heat & Lust in the Raj
Message-ID: <1264@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 18:02:03 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.1264
Posted: Tue Jan 15 18:02:03 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Jan-85 05:32:34 EST
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 28

Caning, anyone?  Nasty Ronald Merrick (aka Timothy(?) Piggott-Smith) is
available for house calls.  Just turn on the tube to PBS Sunday (or
Saturday for the instant replay) night, and receive a sound psychic
thrashing from the saucy folks of Masterpiece Theater.

What do net.motss readers think of the "villainous homo" glue of The
Jewel in the Crown?  Quite frankly, Piggott-Smith is the only Brit,
male or female, in the entire production with any sex appeal, even
though he's saddled with the often stupidly conceived & written role
of Captain Merrick (how many ways can one portray obtuse malice?).
(The erotic show-stealers are Art Malik's Hari Kumar, & perhaps
Kasim & the nawab, the latter played by ??? Jaffrey.)

Although I suspect the TV series is much better than Paul Scott's
Raj Quartet tetralogy, a Canadian correspondent who may've seen
some of the upcoming episodes tells me the homophobia only increases
later on.

Recent movies about India dwells almost solely on the British
Raj & reactions to it (GANDHI, HEAT & DUST, A PASSAGE TO INDIA)
& are often taken up solely with colonial preoccupations.  India
& Indians themselves are lost as a result.  Now PBS adds a dash
of that wonderful Victorian atavism, British homophobia, as if to
emphasize the parochial aims of the Indian locale.  The whole
spate of books & films might well be labeled "Why did we (UK) 
lose India?"

					  Ron Rizzo