Coming to Americans on PBS

<< Now seen the first two-parter - it's all a bit forumlaic, as someone suggested >>
Actually almost all contributors have been very much in favour of Jericho, as I am.

<< and the most formulaic part is the depiction of all the white upper class characters as either downright wicked, depraved, weak or ignorant, and above all, racist!!! >>
This is an exaggeration. Lord Masefield, Wellesley’s banker, who he met at his club, doesn’t come across as too unreasonable; Wellesley’s son shows some strength of character by the end; and Wellesley himself is very clearly not a racist.

<< The last two or three character traits are also applied, of course, to the working class. >>
At the bus garage Albert and Mr Shaw are racists, but Dawn clearly is not. Racism WAS though very prevalent in the UK in those days, as it usually is among those who have had little real contact with other races… and in cop shows you need to have weakness and wickedness – it’s an essential part of crime, both in fiction and real life.

<< The non-whites are shown in a truer light, albeit with a great deal of sympathy extended even to the criminal types - I'm thinking of the Eamonn Walker character. >>
There’s no Eamonn Walker in Jericho. If you mean Shorty, played by Paterson Joseph, he may smile, he may be silver-tongued, but we come to see him clearly for the criminal he is.

<< I am a bit fed up with constantly seeing natives Brits portrayed as the enemy in their own country. Likewise, this ridiculous creeping habit of portraying non-whites as part of everyday life in all periods of UK history >>
You would need to give plenty of examples to justify this view.

<< The fact is that UK society was, until the end of WWII, was populated almost totally by white european christian natives, with the occasional non-white, non-European to be seen. >>
Yes, except that there were frequent religious variations even then: Jews, agnostics, atheists… The BBC’s web feature, “Short History of Immigration”, tells us: “In 1945, Britain's non-white residents numbered in the low thousands.”

<< And no, I am not a BNP follower, I just like things to be truthful, and not twiested for the sake of political correctness. By all means portray a large number of non-whites in current society, this is a perfectly valid authentic depiction of modern day UK life - but do not distort history. That's what the nazis did, remember??? >>
How kind of you to remind us of the Nazis! :-) But you have referred to the situation up to 1945, whereas Jericho is set in 1958! By then many things were changing in Britain, and mass immigration was part of that. As the UK economy grew after WW2, a labour shortage developed, and West Indians were a major group that the British government encouraged to come here. The first arrivals were in 1948, and they can be seen coming off the boat in the news footage at the start of Jericho ep.1. Later on immigrants started to arrive from the Indian subcontinent also.

The BBC again: “As mass immigration continued in the 1950s, so did the rise of racial violence and prejudice. Many areas including Birmingham, Nottingham and west London [We see west London in Jericho ep.1] experienced rioting as white people feared the arrival of a black community. On one hand, these men and women had been offered work in a country they had been brought up to revere. On the other, many were experiencing racial prejudice they had never expected. Legislation had allowed people from the Empire and Commonwealth unhindered rights to enter Britain because they carried a British passport.”
Subsequently the Govermment decided to make non-white immigration much more difficult, but not white immigration.

The kind of racial problems portrayed in Jericho ep.1 WERE present in the UK then. Racism of course is still a problem, but it was much worse in the Jericho era because the situation was new, and so many white Britons were so ignorant and fearful of non-white peoples at that time. Jericho did not twist this aspect of our history.