BAFTA's Campaign to Transform Every TV Show into Unwatchable Climate Propaganda Has Stepped Up a Gear

At least in China the agitprop is transparent.

British television grows more and more unwatchable with each passing day. If you’re lucky enough to live in Asia or Africa, however, you will have the opportunity of watching a far more captivating new exported drama serial made by Chinese State TV, about how much the benign Chinese Communist Party has improved your entire country, your whole life and that of your livestock with its wonderful, environmentally-friendly policies. Happiness Juncao tells the admirable tale of Chinese scientist Lin Zhanxi, a.k.a. the 'father of Juncao', Juncao being a ground-breaking novel method of mushroom-cultivation, whose name apparently means 'fungi and grass'.

According to a glowing write-up in Chinese outlet Global Times:

Lin’s pioneering work involves the utilisation of crop-straw instead of timber for the cultivation of edible fungi-like shiitake mushrooms and enoki mushrooms. The innovative technique not only reduced deforestation and lowered farming costs, but also facilitated advancements in ecological management, mycological animal feed and mycological fertilisers. … Happiness Juncao is inspired by the real-life journey of Lin in promoting Juncao technology abroad. This TV drama vividly portrays the cross-border impact of Juncao technology and its contribution to the well-being of local populations.

Sounds fascinating. Reading about such laughably obvious agitprop over here would traditionally make us smug Westerners smile and feel all superior. Much of what’s on British TV these days may be of an appallingly low quality, but at least our own piss-poor soap operas like Eastenders and Coronation Street aren’t outright state-backed propaganda. If a character on one of those decides to stare directly into the camera and eat a tasty Juncao mushroom one day, it will be purely for important and organic reasons of plot development, not to make us all go veggie and abandon eating meat for the sake of the planet… won’t it? Not if BAFTA (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) has anything to do with it.