Day 179: Who???

Dear The Liberal BBC,

I have been watching the opening episode of the latest series of your popular family science-fiction fantasy programme Doctor Who, and I wanted to write to you to tell you how disgusted I am.

I am very disgusted. I am very disgusted indeed.

I consider myself a reasonable man. A cultured man. But this episode has made me sick to my stomach. Beside myself with fury. Chewing on my knees with chagrin.

How dare you? I ask. Do you not understand that tradition holds value? That things mean what they mean, and to trample that in some rushed pursuit of the "youth" demographic is to laugh in the face of everything that our society, nay, our United Kingdom, holds dear.

I keep hearing that it's not a big deal. That's what they keep saying to me on buses, in Greggs, outside the library where I'm stopping people in the street to tell them. They say I'm overreacting. But where will it end? That's what I want to know.

I'm just a humble man, I suppose, who thinks that some values are worth fighting for - because once you let this slip it won't be long before hardworking folk like myself have nothing.

It's "Hathersage." "Hah-the-sidge". Not "Hath-er-sage."

Nothing clues a Sheffield audience in to the fact that you've hired actors from London for your Sheffield-based series and told them to put on a northern accent like filming them mispronouncing the word "Hathersage" (during a scene on a train that looked suspiciously like a London train, might I add!).

And I'm pretty sure the same woman called Grindleford "Grinford". It's not a fanciful imaginary place, you know? It's where we go for our chip butties from famously cantankerous cafe owners after walking the dog down Padley Gorge, I think you'll find. This stuff matters to us.

Now, I liked the rest of the episode. I thought Jodie Whittaker made for a fabulous Doctor, full of humour and humanity and vivacity and heart, and by the end of the episode she completely and comfortably embodied the role. But unless something changes to make your overpaid television executives start taking my fair city and the names of its village environs seriously, I'm afraid to say I shall not be watching your channel any further.

Sort it out!

Yours,

A Disgruntled Yorkshireman