Sarah Harte: Dear gentle reader, is Bridgerton's colourblind casting really harmful?

Films and TV have long been criticised as an all-white affair. But is 'colourblind casting' in period dramas like 'Bridgerton' or 'Amadeus' really the answer? And does it risk glossing over hard realities minorities faced in the past?

‘Colourblind casting' in shows such as ‘Bridgerton’, with Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte and Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury, risks obscuring the racism of the past, says Sarah Harte.  Picture: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Elon Musk has kicked off a row on Twitter (nothing new there) by claiming that the filmmaker Christopher Nolan has lost his integrity by casting the Oscar-winning black actress Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy in his upcoming film, The Odyssey.

Nyong’o’s casting has not yet been confirmed, but the maddening crowd on X seem divided. Some argue that one of the most famous figures in Greek mythology was described in the Iliad and the Odyssey as ‘white-armed’ with ‘lovely hair’ and therefore Nyong’o is miscast.