Art may imitate life, but life imitates TV
BBC NEWS: Red-haired family forced to move
This report is about a family which has had to move house twice because of harrassment by moronic neighbours who took objection to ... their red hair! This sounds like something out of the Catherine Tate Show, a comedy sketch show best-known for the girl with the "am I bovvered?" attitude, but also features a sketch about "Russet Lodge", a refuge for "gingers". Is it for real? A family moving twice, each time facing abuse over having ginger hair? Are they so rare on Tyneside as to be treated as aliens?
Comments
Salaam Yusuf
Off-topic, but did you listen to the R4 programme "The Poem of the Cloak"?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/pip/0cb8b/
Posted by: Anon | June 3, 2007 7:15 PM
It's an old prejudice. According to legend Judas Iscariot was red-headed and his descendants carry the trait.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.
Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.
Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.
A.E. Housman
Posted by: Thersites | June 7, 2007 2:54 PM