Bodyguard 'was the most misogynist show in years', former equalities chief says

It won high praise for featuring women in senior roles, but a former equalities chief has blasted the BBC hit drama Bodyguard as ‘misogynistic’ because it portrayed them as ‘dim and devious’. The criticism of the drama, which attracted 10.4 million viewers for its final episode, comes in an article by Trevor Phillips for Television, the magazine of the Royal Television Society The six-part drama featured some of Britain’s biggest female stars including Keeley Hawes as Home Secretary Julia Montague; Gina McKee, who starred as the Met Police’s Head of Counter Terrorism, Anne Sampson; and Pippa Haywood as Chief Superintendent Lorraine Craddock, the boss of bodyguard David Budd, played by Richard Madden. The show won high praise for featuring women in senior roles, but a former equalities chief has blasted the BBC hit drama Bodyguard as ‘misogynistic’ ‘I thought they all needed to go to the vets to get their claws done, but the male characters didn’t fare all that much better. 'At least the women were depicted in positions of power and not as human handbags – decorative and demure and draped over the arm of some powerful man.’ The broadcaster also welcomed a change of emphasis within what she described as the BBC’s ‘perving department’, saying: ‘What with Poldark’s pecs appeal, Hiddleston’s pert posterior and the Bodyguard’s dimpled derriere, it’s a welcome change to have the male character highlighted as a sex object for a change.’