diversity

“The [TV] industry genuinely is changing for the better, but we are where we are because lots of people have talked about stuff and not enough people have done anything,” added the CEO of Plimsoll Productions.

“We’re trying to appeal to broad audiences. How on earth can we do that if it’s all being seen through the prism of a bunch of middle-class white people? They should be part of the group, not the whole bloody group.”

Mansfield was part of a panel assembled for an RTS West of England webinar in late June discussing the health of the region’s TV production.

It is the best of times: the television business is booming. It is the worst of times: there is a skill shortage, so wage costs are soaring. Yet shouldn’t that make it the best of times again? Won’t television be forced to find and train a new generation of programme-makers who won’t all be white and middle class? This, I tell Seetha Kumar, the ambitious chief executive of ScreenSkills, is a battle she can win.

RTS in partnership with the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) has held events at other RTS Centre's around the UK, hosting it's fourth and final event in Glasgow.

The events aim to create a safe and open space for discussion, where the TV production community can come together and help tackle the lack of diversity within the industry.

It is always a pleasure to start the working week in your PJs and know that you can stay in them for most of the day, having meetings without anyone knowing or caring.

It is one of the rare weeks when I will spend the majority of it out of London. I am going to Manchester to attend an awards ceremony where I have been nominated for an Inclusive Companies award.

The series of events, which are taking place at RTS centres across the UK, are an attempt to find regional solutions to the lack of diversity in the television industry.

Representatives from a range of independent production companies and post-production facilities discussed diversity in the West of England production community. 

The discussion was led by the facilitator, performance poet and film-maker Alison Smith, the access and engagement coordinator of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival. She focused on how best to hire and retain diverse talent.

Ask attendees of this year’s IBC about what caught their eye at the giant Amsterdam tech fest, and only a few will cite new product launches.

Instead, they’ll talk about the technology trends that were evident at the trade show, and about how they left the event with a far better understanding of the future direction of travel in the complex and ever-evolving world of broadcast technology.

Following his speech, in a Q&A with diversity campaigner and advertising executive Karen Blackett, Lenny Henry described the pace of change in the hiring of women and disabled and ethnic-minority people behind the screen as “glacial”. His point was reinforced by the findings of Ofcom’s latest diversity report, discussed in earlier Cambridge sessions.

Check against delivery.

It is a massive honour to be speaking today at the RTS. The Royal Television Society, the only place left where the word Royal isn’t followed by the words “shuts down Parliament”.

The RTS has consistently been at the forefront of highlighting the issue of diversity in the television industry. 

I gave my first speech at the RTS over ten years ago, talking about how TV desperately needs more diversity and it’s a mark of how far society has come that I’m back today - to talk about how TV desperately needs more diversity.

Speakers

Karen Blackett OBE, UK Country Manager, WPP UK and Chairwoman, MediaCom, UK & Ireland

Sir Lenny Henry, Actor, Comedian and Diversity Campaigner

It was spring 2014. Actor David Gyasi had just landed his first lead role, playing special agent Marcus “Ash” Ashton in the action-packed BBC One drama series The Interceptor.