Sometimes, all it takes to change your relationship to a TV show is one character. Viewers are all enjoying the One Day-meets-High Fidelity vibes of BBC Two’s nostalgic romance Mix Tape. However, none of them can stand the cassette-crossed lovers’ spouses. Yes, for every role that becomes a firm viewer favourite, another is reviled by the show’s fanbase. Lena Dunham’s latest creation, Too Much, seems to be entirely populated by unappealing characters.
Meanwhile, Peppa Pig devotees are in a porcine pickle over the imminent onscreen arrival of a new little sister, baby piglet Evie. Cartoon swine devotees fear this gimmicky addition will upset the delicate balance of the four-way family unit that has been beloved by preschoolers for 21 years. If the oinking blockbuster ain’t broke, why fix it?
The current hate figures won’t be the last to spoil a successful programme. We name and shame the unlucky 13 characters who ruined TV shows …
Vanity Fair dubbed the character “divisive”. The New York Times called them “polarising”. Just two of the euphemisms for being downright awful. As Miranda’s love interest in the Sex and the City sequel, so-called comedian Che was much maligned as an unsubtle caricature of a non-binary person. The character simply made no sense, let alone as a match for the hitherto heterosexual Miranda. They spoke as if they had swallowed a gender studies textbook. They laughed at their own non-jokes. They generally jarred with fans. Some feel similarly about Carrie’s rekindled relationship with Aidan, with his mullet, whispery tones and cringe-inducing phone sex. Shudder.
That noise isn’t dire wolves; it’s howls of protest from fans. The problematically named “Bran the Broken” spent most of HBO’s fantasy saga on the sidelines – wearing furs, sitting in trees and making gnomic pronouncements like a creepy schoolkid in the corner of the playground. He even disappeared for an entire season and wasn’t much missed. No wonder it was, ahem, “controversial” when this passive fringe figure was suddenly picked as Ruler of the Six Kingdoms. A widely reviled choice.
With mega-rated Christmas specials and a dodgy lock-up full of lovely jubbly catchphrases, the Trotter brothers once ruled the sitcom roost. Cushty. While they ducked ’n’ dived around Peckham, Grandad rarely left his armchair in Nelson Mandela House but added a bass note of world-weary, hat-clad, croaky-voiced craftiness. When the actor Lennard Pearce died in 1984, he was replaced by the wackier Uncle Albert – a salty old sea dog with Captain Birds Eye’s beard and precisely one joke, which was starting every sentence with “During the war … ” The decline began, hastened by Del finding love with Raquel and Rodders falling for Cassandra. You plonkers.
