quote:

Originally posted by billydcfc2222:
i was wondering if it is called "Britz" because it being like the word "Blitz" both associated to bombing?

BRITZ because the story is about second gen British Muslims. Because of tendency to shorten names to end with z. Riz, Shaz, Shahnaz,...

Peter,

I enjoyed the show. Using a female for the character who becomes radicalized was a clever twist, but how convinced are you of the verity of this? Surely, the problem of terrorism, like most violence, is one that is overwhelmingly characterised by young men being manipulated by older men. It seems an ultimately odd choice to go for a female character - can you explain why you did this?

B

Where was Nasima's religion? She seemed to have hardly any interest in Islam at all. I found her path into someone who was prepared to blow up innocent people extremely unconvincing.

Dear Mr Kosminsky:

I enjoyed watching your two films, but why on earth is it that you film makers often spoil a generally good piece of film making by placing a series of arbitrary statistics at the end, as if to imply some kind of causal link between the events of the film - which two seconds earlier you are at pains to point out is a work of fiction - and the real world ? Why not just leave the power of a good performance and a good script to speak for itself?

I don't recall Shakespeare ever putting a whole load of statistics about the Elizabethan era at the end of his plays.

Incidentally, I didn't see a credit for the female singer doing the theme song at the end. I don't suppose you know who that was, by any chance?

Thank you.

ive just watched the show and enjoyed i thoroughly enjoyed it.

it shows how muslims are becoming increasingly alienated... i should know i work for a soliciotrs firm defended a lad on terrorism charges and its all very real, furthermore i went to school with one of his co-accused

I only saw part 2 of the drama, what I saw had me hooked!!

There was definitly a political message behind the film, especially with the video of the terrorist at the end, where she gave her reasons.

I found myself wanting to get involved and shout out at the reasons she gave for the terrorism. Not everyone votes for the goverment that gets into power. Killing dosn't achieve anything, it makes things worse!

Thanks for an interesting drama.

Far from being a balanced view of the Islamic situation I felt that this was a typically PC view that justified terrorist action in the UK. There can never be a justification for this kind of action against your own people, whatever their race, creed or religious belief.

Peter - As a British Asian, I think it was a very accurate portrait of views, scenarios and extreme faith based thoughts.

Some viewers, muslim or non, will argue it is going to create more division. I do not agree, if this is the reaction, then people are more shallow than we thought. Allow more cameras, more pictures, more sound into the minority communities as it is only in this manner that we will be able to let the greater majority learn about communities that live within.

Is this not the argument that people have, they do not understand the minority groups.

Well made Peter, well shown C4.

What happened finally to the black boyfriend??

quote:

Originally posted by Peter K.:
This is Peter Kosminsky, the writer and director of Britz. I will be on line immediately after the end of part two, at about 11.15pm on Thursday 1st November, to hear your comments and answer any questions. Thank you in advance for watching.

I have just a few points to ask. Firstly, why did you choose a female for the suicide bomber? There have been no British born female suicide bombers and about 6 Palestinian ones, two of whom were paying back for so called crimes adultery and a prostitution. Bearing in mind the pros and cons of life under sharia and life in secular Britain I cannot imagine a women would chose to be a suicide bomber and is the case to date. what made you think this was credible?

Of the thousands who marched against attacking Iraq including myself, most were British none Muslims. I cannot understand even from this film how Muslims can claim the moral high ground over Iraq! Finally, I cannot see how Muslims can ignore the fact that most of the terror in the world even considering Bust and America, most of the terror in the world is carried out by Muslims, including the sexual terrorism which most people East and West chose to ignore, except of course Salman Rushdie who HAS chosen to acknowledge it.

i have a question, well not really a question just something that didn't make sense to how come whenever people were heard listened to very English proud music such as Dirty Pretty Things and the Razorlight when they held anti British views.

The monologue at the end was in the kind of style of a video that she might have left - and I think she was articulating something that a lot of people have thought for a long time.

"Apathy" is a word that gets thrown around, but you know, we live in the richest part of the world and have no real problems of our own. But we all flick over the channel rather than watch the terrible terrible things that are going on in the world. IN OUR NAMES. And none of us do anything at all - not even talk about it to one another, or pretend to care.

I think she had a point.

quote:

Originally posted by Occasional Visitor:
I didn't like the monologue at the end blaming everything on the British public for voting in Tony Blair.

I'm white British and have no argument with anyone, but I fear that docu-dramas like "Britz" do little to bring faiths together.

It was powerful, well acted and made me think, but only served to make me more scared of terrorism than I was already......and more wary of muslims.

there's alot of muslims on this forum complaining about how unislamic some of the main characters were....well that's fine by me, because islam does not teach what that they eventually did at the end- taking innocent life is a sin- no arguments.

i think it sends a message that it is politics that is eating us all up, not faith! major wars are fought over greed, land, resources, oil, money, never truly over god.

quote:

Originally posted by SWL:
Pakeeza - real Muslim women do drink and sleep around. As do real Muslim men. Maybe not excessively devout ones, but you as a Muslim must know, it is not for you to decide who is a Muslim and who isn't. Allah decides.

so u are saying dat we're hypocrites? i think muslims themselves do not understand their religion these days and are ok to follow non muslims when it pleases them, but when war and terrorism comes into it, then e're all da perfect muslims?

People in this country are so Ignorant that they fail to recognise the issues thats taking place in the globe. People watch the telly and think "yep thats right". Come one people, your guvernment aint so innocent.

This is a question for Peter.

Naseema showed almost no interest in religion, and seemed primarily politically motivated. Were you trying to suggest that political provocation alone may be sufficient cause to for British muslims to seek martyrdom ?

quote:

Originally posted by semmers:
The 2 Pakistani girls at the bomb factory were hot. Liked the bra scene. Good work Peter.

Seriously tho - you got the University scenes spot on. On my campus, Muslims were often handing out leaflets and having radical meetings, often was told that "the crescent will be future flag of Britain". But God has given us Beer and the British Beer Lust as a vaccine, so that this may never happen. Good work God.

is that all you got out of the program?!? that is disgusting!!

quote:

Originally posted by blackmuslim:
did you get a negative response from the muslim community more so from asian muslims?

Response has been equally polarised from both. Some posts say "this is so exactly my experience of living in Britain now". Some say, "he knows nothing about what it's like growing up as a Muslim in Britain". The latter is a bit disrespectful to the many Muslims who worked on the script and the production.

Hi Peter,

Being a fellow Muslim I don't agree that a Muslim bomber would also be 'dating' a non-Muslim, I feel a Muslim boy or girl would be one or the other i.e someone totally committed to the religion and prepared to kill themselves would not sin by dating non Muslims...I maybe wrong but thats the impression we have here today.

The show was amazing. However... won't shows like this just increase the Muslim/everyone else divide? The fact you showed just how easy it was for Nasima to create her bomb in the 2nd part from odds and ends from any hardware store. It seems like there could be a bomb workshop in every other house all over the country.

I know that so far we (the British people) have been very lucky so far. 7/7 was an atrocity but could have been so much worse. Are you not afraid that young Muslims will watch the documentary and be inspired?

However a great show as I said and it does reflect the major problems with the world as it is. However It's not the British peoples fault... England with Brown at the head is slowly turning into a police state. But the only problem with Labor is the fact the 'opposition' of the Torrie's or the Lib Dem's are not exactly a great difference or choice.

What this country and even the world needs are leaders and political parties who have the people in the street in mind instead of the (yes I'm going to say it) Oil giants, major corporations and the rich solely at heart.

-Matthew

Sadly his final part lost me as drama - too slow and just poorly acted, I'm afraid. As a poster said, frown and angst does not equal good acting. Accepting that some police are racist, nevertheless the view that coms acros from this is that most British police officers are heavily armed (why guns in every scene?), racist thugs who beat people up in police stations and make racist comments in interviews (which would of course be taped, so not very likely). Just failed to convince. And to add to my technical error list posted last night, one I forgot - how can a non-nuclear explosive create a "mini EM pulse"? sorry but that's simply nonsense. Why not just say the explosion damagd the sim and leave it at that??

I wonder if that was a stylistic touch to make the program feel more modern and relevant to what was hopefully a non-political, less typical viewer?

quote:

Originally posted by MAlus:
i have a question, well not really a question just something that didn't make sense to how come whenever people were heard listened to very English proud music such as Dirty Pretty Things and the Razorlight when they held anti British views.

Hi Peter,

Very emotive work. I'm a 2nd gen Muslim Brit. Although I feel this will force a lot of discussion about what I think relates to the deepest problems humankind has faced since... forever (which is a good thing), those easily influenced will only go away feeling more segregated unfortunately.

My question: Do you plan to make a follow up drama on the same issues? (Not necessarily the same story/characters)

Thanks
Munir

Does Peter think "Britz" would have had a bigger impact had it been shown on ITV or BBC where the ratings could have been higher ?

No offence to C4

I can't believe how people are getting the wrong idea about this programme.

Yes it was entertaining and I guess it has to be in order for it to convey the contemporary message to as large an audience as possible.

I feel it was unbiassed and gave all sides of the story and while it showed the negativity of life for a British Muslim it also showed the positive sides i.e. the problems with British Laws and the opportunities to find your partner, become a Doctor, fight your case. It showed the gritty, harsh reality of suicide bombers but it also expressed why they feel the way they do. It also highlighted how difficult and demeaning it can be to be part of suicide bombers and how, obviously, a lot of brain washing, bias and circular reasoning is involved.

I feel it covered every area.

I understand there are posters here who have certain sensitivities be they muslim or a British citizen but considering the subject matter and the points that required raising I feel this programme did it very well, by exhibiting the problem from all corners, the reasons behind problems without taking any sides at all.