The BBC still fails to understand sex crimes.

There is a very popular BBC1 program on UK TV at the moment called “Call the midwife.” it’s a jolly jape apparently based on real experiences of Jennifer Worth and set in east London in the 1950s, it’s all about having baby’s and the social deprivations of 1950′s East London. I have watched it myself and some of it is fairly enjoyable.

Last nights episode ‘Birth on a cargo’ ship left me feeling fairly uneasy. The plot was basically the midwife (Most of them are inexperienced and newly qualified) had to visit a cargo ship for a suspected birth, OK bit strange a woman being on a cargo ship in the 50′s but hey this could be fun? Turns out the captain of the cargo ship had installed his daughter on board so that she could have sex with all the crew members to, in her words, “Keep them all happy at sea.” Apparently this was not disgusting enough for the BBC, with possible low IQ and paedophile implications given it was his young daughter? the show had the actress say “Yes I am a bit large, the men slip off sometimes” Oh how everyone chuckled at that BBC, never mind that the girl is being used as a sex slave!

If that was not enough the poor girl goes through a difficult birth, we cut to a scene of about six or seven men, including her father, outside the cabin all looking concerned I suspect in a “Am I the father?” kind of way? As you’d expect the birth goes OK and all the men outside rejoice that the young girl has given birth to one of their offspring. Now I’m sat there with my jaw open wondering “When do the cops appear?” but oh no, apparently, even though the girl says she’s going home, the midwife lets them all sail away happily every after on the love boat.

Now I’m not silly, I know this kind of stuff goes on everyday and it’s only TV, but I’m not sure it should be presented in such a way that people think that it is funny. It makes me wonder if a lot of people at the beeb thought what Jimmy Savile was doing was funny at the time as well?