James Graham: Without the BBC, British and working-class stories could disappear

Playwright James Graham has said “high-quality working-class” and British stories could disappear if the BBC was to lose its funding.

Delivering the annual MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival, the Dear England writer reflected on his working-class upbringing and how he was “enthralled and enriched” by the “myriad of complex and contradictory” people he saw on TV.

He argued the rhetoric around defunding the BBC was “a staple of the new populism” and said the case must be made to keep public service broadcasters (PSBs) amid the rise of streaming services.

Graham explained that audiences need to see “new stories” and that means “taking risks” and “seeing risk as a long-term investment in the future health of our sector”, which is something that PSBs could do.

“Not that Netflix, Amazon and Disney and co don’t take risk, invest in talent, strive for originality,” he said.

“But if a case is to be made – and it has to be made – in this modern, multi-platform environment, for the BBC, alongside ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5… then surely it is that,” he added.

“They are the state school equivalent – the equalising force; the subsidised National Theatre equivalent of being given public funding, to relieve some of the commercial pressures, in order to take non-commercial decisions, in finding and training and amplifying voices that on paper may not have an easy, wide audience yet – but one day will.”

Graham also said: “Speak to any American screenwriters or programme-makers, and they are bewildered at our complacency over our PSBs. They wish they had a BBC.

“We will miss them, if they ever go.

“We must make sure they never go. We must find the language, the enthusiasm, to make the case for them, not just when they’re under siege, but in the good times as well as bad.

He added: “That rhetoric – ‘defund the BBC’ – is a staple of the new populism. I believe it is partly a failure of storytelling, again.

“In the noise of the toxic stories of the modern day culture wars, the pick-a-side society which make a neutral BBC vulnerable… what is the ‘patriotic’ case to appeal to those voices?

“Don’t they realise, for example, that without the BBC, we lose our competitive advantage over the US markets.

“That not-for-profit means British stories, set in British communities, with British characters are protected by the licence fee, and may disappear without it?

“And – of course – recognisable, high-quality working-class stories with them.

“Their existence provably appeals in any argument for keeping a strong BBC.”

The BBC’s annual licence fee faced years of scrutiny under the Conservative government and it announced a review into the licence fee model to look at alternative funding for the corporation’s operations for when its current charter period ends in December 2027.

The new Labour Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, however, has said he is “committed” to the BBC and its licence fee.

The Conservative government also tried to privatise Channel 4, but those plans were scrapped last year.

Graham addressed how the industry could provide better opportunities for working-class people, who he claimed are “the demographic least able to find a foothold in the industry” and said there needs to be “a proper, industry-wide standard, and plan”.

He also called upon the new Government to allow culture “to play an active part” in its promise of “national renewal”.

In his speech, Graham announced that the charitable arm of the Edinburgh TV Festival, the TV Foundation, would be launching an industry initiative.

According to the foundation, it has launched a new Impact Unit which will build on the foundation’s existing career development programmes working in the areas of representation, class and social mobility.

Graham said there is “British embarrassment” when discussing class, adding there is not enough being done to make social background a diversity consideration.

He added: “We have an inbuilt alarm bell, an innate bullshit detector, especially when – elephant in the room – it comes to white men waving a diversity flag. Which I suggest is correct. A necessary cynicism, born out of evidence.

“Nevertheless – this question of ‘proof’. You’re never required to prove, say, your gayness, or your blackness. Or – God, I hope this is true – your disability, once declared, is believed and recognised.”

He also said the “stratas of class are varied and vast” as he called for it to be something commissioning editors, award shows and grant providers consider.

“But that doesn’t mean we can any longer fail to find a way to make them as equal a marker of diversity and inclusion, in the monitoring of our employment practices, in our targets for commissioning and grants, and in our awards,” he added.

Graham is the creator of BBC series Sherwood and he has won Olivier Awards for his plays Dear England and Labour Of Love.