Thursday 31 October 2013

Dear 'Friends of Joseph Carey Merrick' (FoJCM) and esteemed visitors,

I would respectfully remind you of this Blog's raison d'être, to:

  • research fact; 
  • participate in serious Joseph-related discussion and, 
  • contribute factual information. 

As this Blog is directly linked from the Joseph Carey Merrick Tribute website, we must at all times keep our feet well grounded in fact, for otherwise, the website and FoJCM's reputation will suffer. You'll understand that, I can't allow that to happen.  I would prefer to remove this Blog altogether, rather than besmirch the reputation of the Tribute site or the FoJCM.

Please keep these things in mind, when posting to this Blog site.

I thank you for your understanding,
My love, as always,
Jeanette Sitton
Founder and Chair, Friends of Joseph Carey Merrick

1 comment:

  1. Wasn't there a blog post about Ripper Street here once?

    I got in touch with the BBC last month to complain about how they depicted Merrick in their programme. They finally replied and I thought you might like to see what they said....

    Thanks for contacting us regarding ‘Ripper Street’ broadcast on the 4 November.

    Please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. We know our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we are sorry you have had to wait on this occasion.

    We understand you felt the programme featured an ill advised fictionalisation of a real figure and we raised this issue with the production team.

    We apologise that you didn’t enjoy this episode, but that we think it is clear to the audience that this show is fiction rather than fact.

    We feel we were very sensitive in our portrayal of Merrick, and that he was more than a freak to stare at. In this episode we do offer an alternate and obviously fictitious reason for his death. Reid and Abberline are also real police officers, who we put at the heart of this drama and have them lead fictitious police stories.

    We feel it is a valid an interesting role of drama to offer an alternate history in this way.

    Nevertheless, we appreciate your feedback and we’d like to assure you that we've registered your complaint on our audience log. This is an internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily and is available for viewing by all our staff. This includes all programme makers and presenters, along with our senior management. It ensures that your points, along with all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

    Thanks again for contacting us.

    Kind Regards

    Gemma McAleer

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