diversity

On the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity and ITN held an invitation-only event to ask if the war had exposed a serious lack of diversity across newsrooms and what this meant for the journalism they produced?

At the start of the war, the Los Angeles Times wrote: “In the heat of war, a number of correspondents, consciously or not, framed suffering and displacement as acceptable for Arabs, Afghans and others over there — but not here, in Europe.”

ITVX drama Riches breaks new ground by putting female Black British creatives to the fore, reports Shilpa Ganatra

You could practically hear the eye roll of black actor Steve Toussaint, Lord Velaryon in House of the Dragon, when he responded to the backlash about his casting in the role earlier this year. “They are happy with a dragon flying. They’re happy with white hair and violet-coloured eyes, but a rich, black guy? That’s beyond the pale,” he sighed.

At a time when ­producers and broadcasters are working hard to ensure diversity in their workforce as well as on screen, the team at Signpost Productions in the North East of England can claim to be ahead of the curve. Eleven of the company’s 23 full-time staff are deaf or have another disability – physical, chronic or hidden. Between them, they produce more than 1,000 hours of signed British Sign Language (BSL) translations a year for programming on three major broadcasters, including ITV.

Troy Deeney – Where’s My History? will follow Deeney during his high-profile campaign to make it mandatory to teach the history of black, Asian and minority ethnic experiences in the school curriculum.

A YouGov survey of 1000 primary and secondary school teachers discovered that only 12% of teachers feel confident and empowered to teach ‘optional’ black related topics. 

Deeney’s frustration with the lack of diversity in what students are taught in schools led to him writing an open letter to Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi, Secretary of State for Education.

All eyes will be on ­Melanie Dawes when she speaks at the RTS Cambridge Convention in mid-September. The CEO of Ofcom for the past tumultuous 18 months was pre­ceded by the charismatic Sharon White – a star attraction at the conference whenever she spoke.

“Melanie Dawes is the most experienced and impressive Chief Executive that Ofcom has had,” opines an industry insider. And this will be the first opportunity most of her audience has had to hear her in person, thanks to the pandemic.

Anthology series 

The four-part anthology series will see UKTV team up with TriForce Creative Network, an organisation that works to remove obstacles stopping diverse and emerging talent from progressing in the industry. 

The multi-step process will use TriForce’s WriterSlam platform, which is known for discovering writers from all backgrounds, and ask for writing scripts across a range of topics and genres. 

Oh, noooo. The D word. Surely not Donald? No, not that D word – the other one. The one that makes your heart sink a little, too. The one that reminds you of years of struggle. The one that tells of endless meetings with fellow campaigners in drab rooms, banging heads against brick walls.

Fast-tracking new and diverse talent into a variety of roles, the scheme will offer year-long contracts to successful candidates as well as mentoring and training.

If you thought that defining diversity was easy, think again. As the chair of a stimulating and thought-provoking RTS event, Aaqil Ahmed, formerly the head of religion and ethics at the BBC, concluded: “Diversity in itself is diverse. For me, that understanding of it isn’t there for a lot of people.… It’s not a numbers game… diversity is very complicated.”

Throughout the “Defining diversity? That’s easy” session, attempts to provide a definition that all the panel could agree on proved elusive.

“Diversity is all of us,” said Creative Strategy consultant Ally Castle, a former programme maker and audience insights expert for the BBC.  

“If you look at the nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act (age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity) we all have those characteristics.  

“It’s just that some of us are under-represented in the TV industry, on screen and perhaps in wider society.