BBC bosses accused of ‘throwing people out to the wolves’ by axing River City

A former Coronation Street actress has accused BBC Scotland bosses of “throwing people out to the wolves” with plans to axe River City.

Lynda Rooke, who also starred in dramas Casualty and The Bill, told MSPs that shutting down the BBC soap could result in Scotland losing talent from the sector.

Rooke, who is the president of actors’ union Equity, told MSPs on Holyrood’s Culture Committee about the security soaps can provide.

She said: “Sometimes when I was doing the soaps I breathed a sigh of relief that I could pay off the overdraft and get myself back on the straight and narrow, and that is so important.

“You take that away and you really are throwing people out to the wolves, basically.

“It is the long-term view and the security that so rarely happens in this industry, River City offers this to those performers and crew and technicians.”

With that “at risk”, she said it is possible actors and others working behind the scenes in the TV sector could end up leaving Scotland.

Rooke warned: “You are going to lose talent again, we have known it happen in the past, many people have gone down to London because they couldn’t make a living.”

She appeared before the committee alongside River City star Frank Gallagher, who plays Lenny Murdoch.

He told MSPs: “There should be a place for people who want to work in our own country instead of waiting for some dramas that are probably brought up from the BBC production in London.”

BBC Scotland announced back in March that River City, which is based in the fictional area of Shieldinch, is to end next year. It has been on air since 2002.

At the time the broadcaster said the decision reflects a change in viewing patterns as audiences move away from long-running series, instead opting for shorter shows.

At the same time as it axed the soap, BBC Scotland announced three new dramas.

Speaking about these planned new shows, Rooke said: “I can almost guarantee they will not replace the jobs or the infrastructure, I doubt that will be the case.”

She told the MSPs how soaps can help develop talent in the TV sector, saying they “allow people who normally don’t have easy access into the film and television industry to actually get in there”.

She added: “They become a training ground both on screen and off screen and it allows people from marginalised communities in particular to enter into the industry, which can be a very closed shop, with lots of barriers, especially outside London and the South East.”

Meanwhile, Equity general secretary Paul Fleming told the committee that “River City is the Rubicon we’re not prepared to cross”.

He insisted the Scottish soap “has got a fanbase, it has got a clear dedicated viewership”, and said both it and other long-running productions “provide stable, high-quality employment”.

Contrasting that with the planned new programmes, he said: “£9m for three dramas is not really that sort of deep intellectual commitment.”

Mr Fleming also questioned the value of the hit programme Traitors to Scotland.

The show is filmed in the Highlands, but Mr Fleming said: “Traitors does not employ actors as professional actors, that is not the role of it, and if you look at the economic value it creates, it is a small, contained production brought up from London, a bit of a flash in the pan.”

BBC Scotland has been contacted for comment.