BODY-SHAMING!

Beeb show blasted for Muslim bomb girl role

THE BBC hit drama Bodyguard has been accused of being racist.

In the opening episode, viewers saw war veteran David Budd, played by Richard Madden, tackle a female Muslim suicide bomber on a train.

The woman, called Nadia Ali, had explosives strapped to her chest and gave the impression she was being controlled by her jihadi husband.

Later, viewers discovered she was in fact the real mastermind behind several attacks.

But the drama has now come under fire for promoting stereotypes by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, right.

She made history by becoming Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet minister under Tory PM David Cameron.

She claims the Beeb approached her about making a show for Radio 4 called How To Be A (Muslim) Woman in a bid to change people’s attitudes.

But she was stunned when just months later, “Muslim terrorist Nadia” popped up on her TV screen.

The lawyer and politician told Radio Times: “I spoke ages ago to producers who wanted to do something and I said: ‘I’m a Muslim and female and I just feel that the narrative around my skin is so one-dimensional’.

“When we started this programme, Bodyguard hadn’t come out. “Then it did, and everybody said: ‘Oh, it was such an amazing series’. “I thought: ‘Well, it was, except for the Muslim woman, who’s painted in exactly the same stereotypical way that we always paint Muslim women’.

“Either she’s downtrodden and needs to be saved or she’s a terrorist and we need to be saved from her.

“In Bodyguard, we think she’s one and she turns out to be the other.” Last night the BBC declined to comment. Bodyguard has proved such a ratings success – with a consolidated audience of 17million watching its finale – that a sequel is planned. Richard Madden is set to meet writer Jed Mercurio soon to discuss it. He said: “I’m going to meet him in a couple of weeks to have a chat and see what’s in his brilliant brain.”