A woke Amazon Prime show featuring a black, gay, and disabled version of England’s King Edward VI, sold as a “queer fantasy,” has been canceled after just one season due to a lack of interest. My Lady Jane was based on a series of young adult books from 2016 based on the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, who historically ruled for just nine days following the death of the Protestant boy king Edward VI before the Catholic Mary I ousted her.
Edward VI appears as a black, disabled, homosexual man in the series, in a move that woke media reviewers lauded. However, despite reviews hailing the show as “perfect summer viewing,” audience numbers were so dismal that Amazon pulled the plug.
Emily Bader, who played Lady Jane Grey in the series, said the show was “camp and super self-aware,” calling it “insane and silly.”
The show is just one of many that have tried to change the ethnic backgrounds of figures from British history. In the show Bridgerton, for instance, many characters supposed to be English aristocrats are portrayed as black, including Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, who was historically not black.
The BBC’s flagship science fiction show Doctor Who has also been accused of trying to make historical Britain more diverse than it really was. Former showrunner Steven Moffat explained in 2016 that he did not mind lying to his audience about history to present a “better vision of the world.”
The latest incarnation of Doctor Who is played by a Rwandan migrant who is “openly queer.” This is also seeing dismal ratings.
