BBC’s Christmas Day Hansel and Gretel will show ‘dead children’
The BBC is planning to show a “gory” version of Hansel and Gretel on Christmas Day that shows dummies of dead children hanging by ropes. The Royal Opera House production, which it has described as “perfect family fare for everyone at holiday time” will be aired at 3pm on BBC2. Children’s campaigners have criticised the BBC’s decision to broadcast it at a time when young children will be watching.Even the Royal Opera House has recommended that children younger than eight should not see the two-hour show, which culminates in a final scene in which the wicked is eaten by the captive children.Margaret Morrissey, of Parents Aloud, said: “There are lots of wonderful children’s operas that would be delightful on Christmas Day. If we can’t keep out such horrible, gruesome scenes I think we have come to a very sad state of affairs.”But knowing the BBC they will show great delight in broadcasting this, and saying that people like me are Mary Whitehouse fuddy-duddies.”Michele Elliott, founder of the Kidscape charity, described the decision to broadcast it at 3pm as “absolutely appalling”.She said: “Children could be really scared or even traumatised by watching this.”The Brothers Grimm fairy tale is one of their darker stories. It tells of a brother and sister who wander the forest in search of food as their woodcutter father cannot feed them. Chancing upon a gingerbread house, they are beckoned inside by a witch who enslaves them. Eventually they manage to trap her in her oven and escape.The televised version shows her larder hung with what appear to be dead children, who spring back into life to eat the witch.A BBC spokesman said it was within editorial guidelines and would be preceded by an advisory warning. She said it was no different from the darker elements in “Roald Dahl or Harry Potter”, adding: “This is on BBC2 not CBBC. It’s a perfect family treat. I think modern audiences will see that it isn’t a realistic drama, it’s a stage production.”
A spokesman for the Royal Opera House said: “There is only one particular scene that’s a bit gory, that shows dummies of dead children hanging in the fridge. Very shortly afterwords they all come alive and sing and dance and eat the witch.”
She said it was recommending children younger than eight did not watch the live performance, but mainly because it was three hours of German opera.
“If it’s on Christmas Day parents may want to video it,” she added. Stephen Adams Daily Telegraph.
So over to you parents how many of you agree, we know Hansel and Gretal is not the most pleasant of fairy stories but even so do we really need to keep showing our children these images and on Christmas Day?
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Of course its fine to show it, childrens tales have always been gruesome affairs. it has only been in recent years that these element have been removed. besides i dont know of a single child who would sit through 3 hours of german opera. i think they’d be more traumatised by sitting through that than looking at dancing dead children. i suppose you’d object to the little shop of horrors because of the wanton destruction caused by a non p.c cannibalistic plant who exudes certain black-American tendencies, or perhaps the pied piper of hamelyn? children are not turned into repulsive little cretins, the likes of which we see on our street corners by films, television and other popular media (though it has it own responsible part to play in ensuring it acts in witholding from excessive violence/foul language etc) they are created because parents show no interest in educating them in the correct way. it is not the state’s responsibility to teach children right from wrong, it is the parents, and the sooner people such as yourself and the parents stop scapegoating everyone but themselves the better; im sure if everyone spent as much time connecting with their children in a responsible and constructive manner rather than drinking/being on the dole/ being a P.C nutjob or complaining about anything they see as objectionable the problems would soon be reduced!kids will be kids, you cant educate it out of them, dont fight it, work with it, teach responsibility without patronisation, show firmness without abuse, show compassion without creating a cotton wool kid. its not rocket science how can so many people get it so very wrong?
Norfolk.N.Cliu
All fairy tales have an unpleasant element running through them, and “Hansel and Gretel” with its abandoned children and cannibal witch, is no exception. The opera’s been sweetened a little by making the children’s mother – not stepmother – send the kids into the woods to pick strawberries for supper, rather than abandoning them altogether, and the cannibal witch in the opera version bakes the children into gingerbread before eating them. This loses the element of horror a little so maybe the opera’s director wanted to redress the balance a little.
And, yes, I would have been very scared by that scene as a child. But as I’ve said, all good fairy tales have the element of horror running through them. Take Snow White’s stepmother’s demand to have her dear little rival’s heart brought in a casket. And what about the sisters in “Cinderella” permanently disabling themselves in an attempt to win the Prince? Hardly cute bedtime reading.
Yes, the image of the children hanging there is unpleasant, to say the least. But it can’t be as revolting as the scene in the Metropolitan Opera’s version, where the mother, having feasted on the food brought home by Dad after he’s done well with selling his brooms, learns that she’s sent the kids into a wood where a cannibal witch lurks. Her reaction? To run to the sink and vomit up what she’s just eaten, in full view of the audience. Now that is truly disgusting.
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