The writer of BBC2 serial killer drama The Fall has defended its depictions of violence against women, saying he feels hurt at suggestions the series is misogynistic.
The Fall returns for a third series later this month with killer Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan, fighting for his life after being shot, watched over by Gillian Anderson’s Northern Ireland police detective.
The first two series have received largely positive reviews, but have also been criticised over depictions of violence against women. Guardian columnist Rachel Cooke said it is “in the business of glamorising violence against women by equating it not only with sex, but with sexual attractiveness”. It has also been described by the Mail as “an invitation to share an extended rape fantasy”.
However, writer Allan Cubbitt said that he was not a misogynist, and the show had only shown the death of one woman across its first 11 episodes.
He told the Radio Times: “I was very upset by the implications of what was said – because whose fantasy would it be but mine?”
“Being accused of misogyny when you’re not a misogynistic person, and indeed your entire raison d’etre is the reverse of that, feels like an artistic failure.”
Cubbitt also pointed to Anderson’s central role as DSI Stella Gibson, whose place as a woman in a position of power is acknowledged in the series.
He added that he believed that the emergence of other shows with more violence at the same time as The Fall, such as French zombie series The Returned, had prompted a wider backlash that had affected responses to his series.
However, he said that the one opinion that mattered most to him was that of his 22-year-old daughter.
“She gets what it is that I am trying to do and supports it. If she doubted me I would be in trouble,” he added.
Cubbitt has been forced to defend the show before, in 2014 following its debut. At the time he said that those saying the programme was misogynist had “given it the closest reading”.
Anderson has previously said she expects to keep playing Gibson in a fourth series next year, and Cubbitt has said he has ideas for further series beyond Spector’s storyline.
