Idris Elba would make a good Othello. I say that because he’s a good actor – the star of Luther is the current bookies’ favourite to win the best actor Oscar for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – and because he is black.

Scholars have wasted centuries debating how black Othello is, and I won’t attempt to break that down for you here. Quite simply, I prefer to think of Iago as being a racist, or otherwise he becomes a cartoon villain.

So I’m kind of concerned to learn that the part of Otello in the Royal Theatre’s opera is being played by a white singer. If it had been the other way round, I migh have stifled a few giggles – like the time when it was revealed that Charles Dickens probably based the character of Fagin on a 60-year-old black gangmaster … barely months after the hoo-hah of a black woman playing Nancy – but this doesn’t sit well with me.

But I guess I’m being a hypocrite, a little too PC. If a racial reversal doesn’t affect the narrative, what’s the problem, besides depriving performers of roles they might feel more suited to?

But if the narrative is affected, then I have a problem, like in this year’s Kronborg Castle production of King Lear in which the title character was played by a black actor.

Imagine if you’d never seen the play. You’re trying to decipher the critical events of Act One, but you’ve got a black king with three white daughters. You’re going to presume things, aren’t you? Like he’s their step-dad. Yeah, royalty are marrying women with baggage all the time. Your best years are behind you and you’re having trouble finding a husband? Just flash your tits at the king.

Fortunately the makers of The Butler were able to find enough black actors to play the key roles in their film, but resisted the temptation to cast Billy Dee Williams as Lyndon B Johnson or, god forbid, James Earl Jones as James Earl Ray.

Arun Sharma’s review is his 100th since he started working here back in 2007, during which time he has administered 142 stars – it would have been less, but he didn’t realise he could award no stars up until 2010. In fact, he’s so nasty, he would make a convincing Iago, even without the racist sub-plot.