People in Liverpool need to have a ‘big bag of cocaine in them’ if the characters want to appear on a BBC show, a leading producer has said.
Jimmy Mulville, who co-founded the production company behind Channel 4’s smash hit Derry Girls, has accused executives at the broadcaster of perpetuating stereotypes about regions in the UK.
It comes months after a damning report found that the BBC is still perceived to lean towards the ‘middle class’ and be too ‘London-centric’.
Mr Mulville based the comments off his own experience with trying to pitch a ‘rom-com between two middle-aged people in Liverpool’ but has had little interest.
‘I think the mistake is that it hasn’t got a bag of cocaine in it,’ Mr Mulville mused, before quipping that he needs to ‘phone the writer to say, “Stick a bag of cocaine in it on page three”.’
‘Then the BBC will lap it up because they think, “Liverpool coke dealers – let’s do it”, he added.
Liverpool born Mr Mulville’s comments had been in reference to the BBC’s This City is Ours, The Cage and The Responder, but clarified that they were all separately ‘really good’.
Mr Mulville, who also helped create Trigger Point on ITV and Have I Got News for You for the BBC, said BBC commissioners needed to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ about the limitations they enforce.
Jimmy Mulville, who helped produce Derry Girls, has accused executives at the BBC of perpetuating stereotypes about regions in the UK
Liverpool born Mr Mulville’s comments had been in reference to the BBC’s The Responder (pictured), The Cage and This City is Ours, but clarified that they were all separately ‘really good’
This City is Ours (pictured) is a drama set in Liverpool, following a crime boss who wants to retire from criminal life after one last major drug deal
Mr Mulville’s show, Derry Girls, a comedy about a group of teenagers growing up in Londonderry in the 1990s during the Troubles, was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of young girls.
Peter Fincham, Mr Mulville’s co-host on their entertainment podcast, where the comments were made, said ‘you don’t see about happy law-abiding people…in Liverpool who are law-abiding smiley citizens like most people are’.
The BBC were reprimanded in January for still centralising the power of the organisation in London by the report, which recommended improving the way it connects with working-class audiences and those based outside the capital and the south of England.
The independent review of portrayal and representation in BBC content, commissioned by its own board, added that more key decision makers should be located outside the capital.
The review, by former Bafta chairwoman Anne Morrison, and independent media consultant Chris Banatvala, found that perceptions of the Beeb are often lower among those demographics who are also less likely to be satisfied with how they are represented and portrayed.
‘Our audience research found that the perception of the BBC remains that it is skewed towards the middle class and is London-centric – and that the power in the organisation still lies in the UK capital,’ the report said.
‘We found that this has consequences for portrayal and representation.
‘Genuine production, rooted in the location, made by people who understand it in depth was described to us as fundamental to on-air authenticity. We agree.’
The Cage (pictured) is a thriller following two casino workers in Liverpool who soon realise they have both planned to steal from the same safe
Derry Girls (pictured) was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of young girls.
The reported added that the BBC’s key decision makers ‘must understand the audience and what will appeal to them – whoever and wherever they are’ and that bosses need to devise a ‘new set of diversity characteristics specifically for measuring portrayal and representation which would include class and geography’.
They also said that BBC would represent the whole of the country better if ‘at least half’ of all senior TV genre commissioners were ‘rooted in the location’ where Brits are currently more disengaged from its content.
The review also noted that, while there has been some improvement, there are still more men than women featured in BBC news, nations and factual programming, and this is particularly prevalent with older people.
The report said: ‘We would like to see a renewed effort to achieve gender balance in content for contributors and reporters in news and factual programmes.
‘In addition, we found that male presenters significantly outnumber female presenters in the older age groups.
The BBC Executive has committed to strengthening how the BBC measures the ways in which different audiences are portrayed and represented in its output.
It will also systematically review upcoming content plans to ensure underrepresented audience groups are reflected authentically and use existing and new data to ensure social background, age and geographical representation also help inform the development of on-screen and on-air roles.
The BBC said in response to Mr Mulville’s comments: ‘BBC Drama proudly commissions a broader range of drama than anyone else in the UK and the crime genre is a hugely popular part of our offer to audiences.
‘We back creatives to tell the stories they want to tell, and these dramas were written by the award-winning Tony Schumacher and Stephen Butchard, who both hail from Liverpool where these series were filmed and set.’
It then highlighted to a variety of shows they commission, including The Other Bennet Sister, Call the Midwife, Half Man, Dear England, Adrian Mole and Riot Women.
It added that crime dramas were commissioned across the UK, like Silent Witness (Birmingham), Counsels (Glasgow), Blue Lights (Belfast) and Beyond Paradise (Cornwall and Devon).
