The fictional treatment of multiracial issues on British television since 9/11
Résumé
The London terrorist attacks of July 2005 drove home the problem of the integration of British citizens of foreign descent. They only faintly echoed the 9/11 kamikaze hickjacks and the 2004 Madrid bombings since they did not point to the situation in Afghanistan or in Irak but addressed the question of the place of Muslims in Britain. This was the conclusion that journalists reached when they learnt that the perpetrators were British citizens born and brought up in Britain. The media, and television in particular, have been quick in sizing up the situation and, soon after and the bombings of July 2005 on the London public transports, world renowned British film-makers ventured on the fictionnalisation of the circumstances that led fellow-citizens of multiracial identity to resort to terrorism. The London terrorist attacks of July 2005 drove home the problem of the integration of British citizens of foreign descent. They echoed the 9/11 kamikaze hickjacks of planes later cr ashed on the New-York Twin Towers and the 2004 Madrid bombings since they did not point to the situation in Afghanistan or in Irak but addressed the question of the place of Muslims in Britain. The media, television in particular, were quick in rising to the challenge of trying to give an explanation to this tragic phenomenon. soon after and the bombings of July 2005 on the London public transports, world renowned British film-makers ventured on the fictionnalisation of the circumstances that led fellow-citizens of ethnic background to resort to terrorism. Although several well-informed studies on post-colonial Britain had been published on the topic, these attacks came as a shock for a population largely ignorant of the growing discontent. Our study aims at focusing on the origins of the treatment of racial issues on British television by focusing firstly on the image of multiculturalism afforded by comedy and comic sitcoms in particular. A study of the recent developments in the treatment of multiethnicity paves the way for a focus on Britz, a thoroughly researched filmic documents exploring the roots of the malaise.