Thank you for your comments and for welcoming me to this forum.
I just want to clarify that at no point was I suggesting that Julian's disappearance or ability had anything to do with the colour of his skin. It also makes me happy that people have commented on how they never really saw him as non-white, as it means that it’s his personality that makes him memorable. Being mixed-race and also from (at the time) a virtually entirely white, working class, northern town (as I believe Jules did), I know I had to try much harder than the next kid to get noticed for the right reasons. As QVC studios are based in London, where almost 40% of the population is now non-white, I don’t think I’m being entirely unreasonable in feeling slightly unrepresented in certain areas of TV.
I am of an age where I grew up watching Julian on Saturday morning kids TV in the late 80’s and always found him an inspiration in my younger years when positive, mixed-race, male role models on TV were few and far between, so was pleased to see him regularly on QVC in more recent years. It was seasoned presenters like he and a few of the other long-standing ones that made me think QVC as a cut-above some of the other, more monotonous channels, for bringing personality and humour to the proceedings, rather than the “sell, sell, sell!” attitude, like a pushy salesman in a department store.
I welcome the fact that people have their own reasons for liking various presenters and I whole-heartedly agree that a person’s ability to do a job should never be about race or skin colour, but for my story and my reasons, which I don’t expect everyone to relate to, his colour played a positive part.
