BBC drama boss Piers Wenger slammed the film and TV industry as ‘racist’.
Wenger – who was appointed Controller of BBC Drama in 2016 – said the industry is ‘not diverse’ and ‘something has gone wrong’ but vowed the corporation is ‘working on putting that right’.
Speaking to a virtual audience at the online Edinburgh TV Festival, he said: ‘The industry is not diverse, as Steve McQueen said, it is racist. Something has gone wrong and we are working on putting that right.’
Film director and artist Sir Steve McQueen previously said the UK has a ‘shameful’ lack of diversity in its film and TV industries and the country lags ‘far behind’ the US in representing ethnic minorities in production.
BBC drama boss Piers Wenger (centre in 2017) slammed the film and TV industry as ‘racist’
The BBC’s head of content Charlotte Moore (pictured) said ‘diversity on screen and off screen has never been more important to the BBC’
The BBC’s head of content Charlotte Moore said ‘diversity on screen and off screen has never been more important to the BBC’ and said she hopes hit shows including Noughts And Crosses and I May Destroy You has showed ‘real commitment’.
I May Destroy You – starring actress Michaela Coel – follows London-based writer Arabella as she comes to terms with a sexual assault after her drink was spiked at a nightclub.
Noughts and Crosses depicts a world where black people are the oppressors and whites are a downtrodden underclass.
Ms Moore said: ‘Diversity on screen and off screen has never been more important to the BBC. If we don’t reflect the country we are making programmes for we have failed.
‘I hope some of the films we have shown this year from Noughts And Crosses to I May Destroy You and A Suitable Boy and Small Axe, I hope that shows real commitment and direction of travel, we are absolutely committed.
‘This should be right at the heart of BBC one’s schedule and right at the heart of iPlayer.
I May Destroy You – starring actress Michaela Coel (pictured) – follows London-based writer Arabella as she comes to terms with a sexual assault after her drink was spiked at a nightclub
‘It’s been too long and its up to all of us to make sure this is the moment of absolute change and I couldn’t be more committed to that. I think this is the moment we will look back and say we really did see change.
‘The whole business will benefit. If we don’t do this I don’t think the television industry will survive.’
Their comments comes amid a row over whether Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory should be axed from Last Night of the Proms after the centuries-old patriotic songs were labelled ‘racist propaganda’.
The BBC is said to be considering dropping the anthems from the concert on September 12 amid fears of criticism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement because of their apparent links to colonialism and slavery.
Noughts and Crosses depicts a world where black people are the oppressors and whites are a downtrodden underclass
The songs are best known for being a triumphant finish to the BBC’s coverage of the Proms each year, when thousands of flag-waving ‘prommers’ normally descend on the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, West London.
Speaking in the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival Wenger also spoke about how productions ranging from EastEnders to The Pursuit Of Love are using ‘ingenious’ ways to navigate Covid-19 filming restrictions.
These include have actors kissing through a sheet of perspex, which is then taken out in post-production, or putting cast and crew in ‘bubbles’.
The BBC’s head of entertainment Kate Phillips said Strictly Come Dancing is the ‘hardest’ show to film under current circumstances.
Their comments comes amid a row over whether Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory should be axed from Last Night of the Proms (pictured on September 8, 2012) after the centuries-old patriotic songs were labelled ‘racist propaganda’
The BLM-backing Finnish conductor who ‘wants to reduce patriotic elements’ of Britain’s beloved Last Night of the Proms amid calls to ban Rule Britannia and Land of Hope at Glory over ‘colonial links’
Dalia Stasevska, who is conducting the Last Night
Dalia Stasevska is preparing for the biggest night of her career on September 12 when she conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Last Night of the Proms.
But away from music, the 35-year-old, who moved from her birthplace of Ukraine to Finland when she was aged just five, is known to be a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In June, as protests took place over the death of black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms Stasevska tweeted an image reading: ‘I stand for equality. I stand against racism. I stand for love and compassion.’
In June, as protests took place over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms Stasevska tweeted the above image
She uses social media to campaign about race and gender equality, and last month encouraged followers to listen to a BBC Radio 3 debate about classical music and race.
Ms Stasevska is pictured with Mr Lordi, the lead vocalist in heavy metal band Lordi
Ms Stasevska is married to the Finnish musician Lauri Porra, who is the bassist for power metal band Stratovarius and the great-grandson of composer Jean Sibelius.
Speaking to the Guardian in January 2019, she said: ‘He’s the famous one, not me. There’s no city or country where he doesn’t get recognised!’
Ms Stasevska originally trained as a violinist, before developing a love of opera aged 13 then moving into conducting in her 20s.
She told the Guardian: ‘Opera was kind of my punk. My friends were listening to the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, but I just wanted opera.’
Dalia Stasevska is married to the Finnish musician Lauri Porra, who is the bassist for power metal band Stratovarius
But she revealed the professionals are already rehearsing the group numbers for when it returns later this year, with altered sets and changes to hair, make-up and costuming.
Ms Phillips offered an update on the flagship entertainment shows saying the dancing competition will be more special than ever.
She said: ‘Strictly is probably the question we get asked more than any other show.
‘I can say it absolutely is coming back – it is a slightly shorter run, but apart from that I don’t think it will be a lesser show at all. If anything I think it will be special this series, there will be heightened emotions and a lot of the dances will have real poignancy.
‘The pros have been isolating together for the last couple of weeks, they are now rehearsing together, the big dance numbers, it looks so good seeing them dance.
‘We will announce the celebrity line-up at the end of this month, we are planning it now but they are all on board and very excited.
‘We are having to adapt, the set is having to be altered, we are not quite sure at this stage how much audience we will be able to have in and we have to look at Dave Arch and his band, how hair and make-up and costume will work backstage.
‘It’s probably the hardest show to do in the current circumstances, a live weekly show that relies on body contact quite a lot. Having said that, I think Studios (BBC Studios, which makes the show) have really risen to the challenge and there is that old line, necessity is the mother of invention, and I would say across all the entertainment shows we are seeing constant good ideas.’
Phillips confirmed that The Apprentice has been postponed until next year because it would be impossible to film some of the most popular elements of the series.
She said: ‘The Apprentice was a really hard call because we all really love The Apprentice. We had long discussions with the production team.
‘We felt in the end the compromise that would have to be made, a lot of things that people love, the running around the streets, the living in the house together, we just couldn’t do it, and with the increasing costs, we thought we would rather bring it back when we can do it properly, so that is paused until next year.’
However, she added: ‘Top Gear is very much up and running. The big difference is we won’t be able to do all the foreign trips, although a couple were done before lockdown.
‘The inventiveness they have brought to the table, they are very, very funny, proper belly laughs.’
The panel also showed a clip from Freddie Flintoff’s documentary about his battle with bulimia.
Ahead of showing the clip from the documentary, which has a working title of Freddie Flintoff On Bulimia, Moore described the programme as an ‘extraordinary watch’.
She added: ‘I absolutely admire the fact that he’s been so open and honest, and this is a film about the fact that he lives with bulimia, and in the past it’s been very serious and at the moment, he talks about it in the film, but he feels it’s still something he has to live with – it’s not done and dusted.
‘And he really, he says at the front of the film, I’ve never really talked to anyone about it, I’ve never really opened up, I’ve never even gone to speak to a medic about the condition, and he goes on a very personal kind of exploration of what it is that he’s living with and how that affects many people.
‘There’s something about, when you know Freddie who is just such great fun, who is this massively warm figure, who has a laugh and one moment is in Top Gear… and then you meet the man and he’s really honest about what’s going on and I think the courage that he speaks with is really, really extraordinary, but I’m hoping and I know one of the reasons he wants to do it is because he thinks the impact this will have on other young men.’