Peter Rabbit in a stew over allergy depiction

Watch out -billy-boy rabbits about...

Beatrix Potter died in 1943.

I may be speaking out of turn here, but I doubt she had any experience of what an EpiPen is for. Or what GCI is.

Or why her fluffy bunny characters Cottontail, Flopsy and Mopsy would, in 2018, be appearing in a modern movie version of her famous book, Peter Rabbit, and attacking someone with an allergy to blackberries.

In this modern take on the children’s favourite, Peter and his bunny hoodlums attack character Tom McGregor, firing the offending fruit at the human using catapults, and causing a reaction severe enough for him to have to use an EpiPen to deal with his allergic response.

Ha! How cute. The kids will love it. What could be nicer to show your children? A gang picking on someone who has an allergy. Charming, and totally in the spirit of the original stories.

Miss Potter may have loved the Lake District, but I suspect she’d be dismayed at this crass outing.

Unsurprisingly, it’ caused a bit of a backlash from angered parents and allergy sufferers, forcing Sony Pictures and the makers of the film to apologise and “sincerely regret not being more aware and sensitive to this issue”. Oh come on. Are they saying they didn’t know people have severe allergic reactions? That portraying beloved children’s characters attacking someone and causing one wasn’t insensitive?

That’s Jemima Puddle-Ducking ridiculous.

(or)

They must be off their Squirrel Nutkins.

This post first appeared as the second piece in my column/page in The Mail and the News & Star, on the 16th of February 2018,where it was re-titled as "In a stew over allergy".

I offered up the two alternative final lines to the paper - unsurprisingly, they went with the second option!

(CD A-Z: Visage - "The Damned Don't Cry".)

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