Diversity campaigner: Lenny Henry (Copyright: UK Parliament)

Actor and comedian Lenny Henry urged members of parliament to act on the lack of diversity in the television industry earlier today.

In what has been dubbed the ‘Henry Plan’, funds would be ring-fenced to increase Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation, in the same way that budgets are reserved for regional programmes.  

Marcus Ryder, Chair of the RTS Diversity Committee and Head of Current Affairs at BBC Scotland, was also present to argue the case for improving diversity in broadcasting with MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

The discussion comes a week after the joint RTS and Broadcast ‘Diversify’ event, which debated the issue of a lack of diversity in the television industry and how best to tackle this problem.

Henry told MPs today: “If you talk to any BAME person in the industry, there is a sense of fatigue. People have lost hope and don’t think one more initiative will achieve true diversity.”

Marcus Ryder, Chair of the RTS Diversity Committee and Head of Current Affairs at BBC Scotland (Copyright: UK Parliament)

Last week BBC director general Tony Hall announced new measures to improve the corporation’s minority representation, which included a £2.1m fund to help get shows by minority ethnic talent broadcast.

But Henry said he thought this was based on an “old model that hasn’t worked”.

He believes the ‘Henry Plan’ would succeed because it is modelled on the regional diversity plan that the BBC implemented in 2007, which saw certain percentages of the core programming budget spent in each nation or region, reflecting their share of the population.

A similar system could be implemented to increase the number of people from BAME groups, says Henry.

Ryder added that he has seen the equivalent regional representation plan work well in Scotland, where the amount of programming has increased since funds were ring-fenced in 2007.

Henry said that any show “from Doctor Who to Question Time”, could meet the criteria set out in his plan, which includes boosting the number of on-screen as well as production staff from ethnic minorities, and that his model could be expanded to apply to all broadcasters.

 

This evening an RTS All Party Parliamentary Group produced by Sue Robertson will discuss the future of the BBC licence fee. You can follow the live blog of the discussion here.

 

By Jemma Buckley