The Lenny Henry BAFTA Television Lecture
As a keen attendee of Bafta Q&A’s, I have noticed there is always at least one person who raises the diversity in TV question or the lack there of and the stock answer often given is “it’s about the work”. If the story is there, they will make it but who is picking the stories and who is telling them.
Lenny Henry took the diversity debate from the back of the room, around row M and brought it to the podium in his “I have a dream screen” Television Lecture at BAFTA. Focusing on the representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups in front and behind the camera, Lenny sent out a call to action to the Indies as well as the Broadcasters, ‘the makers and the pickers’, to cast their net wider.
In his earlier speech at the RTS in 2008, Lenny drew attention to the exodus of known black actors from the UK to the States. In this lecture we were treated to a PowerPoint presentation showing the familiar actors we had lost to the US from Daniel Harewood of Homeland acclaim to Archie Panjabi now a long running regular face in the Good Wife. Lenny, a friend of Harewood, described how the fellow actor told him he is just happy to be working. Unlike the 2000 people here who are reported to have fallen off the radar between the years 2006 and 2012 by Creative Skillset. The stats, showing a 30.9% decrease in BAME employees, speak volumes – warranting the question why hasn’t it been so transparent before? Lenny put it out there that for every one BAME person who lost their job over two white people were employed.
Lenny Henry in conversation with Baroness Oona King
The flurry of new training schemes, mentoring programmes and increased monitoring has not quite tackled the issue of under representation so Lenny not only has a screen dream but he has a proposal. Practical details of how to adapt the success of increasing regional diversity for increasing BAME diversity in Television, which is available to read on the BAFTA Guru site and hard copies were distributed at the end of the lecture. Maybe with some of these stipulations including ring-fenced money, the landscape will change and new attitudes will be embraced. One of the take home points from the lecture was Lenny wanted to foster a working environment of collaboration, where the BAME community must not only be acknowledged but included at all levels.
Most of the audience knows Lenny Henry as an accomplished comedian and he didn’t disappoint in this lecture, sharing his vision for the future in an engaging and often hilarious way. The biggest laugh of the event went to the simple observation that BBC’s Luther, the great Idris Elba, who actually came back from US fame in The Wire for a title role in this smooth high end drama, was a black man with no other black friends or family. It’s funny because it’s true and where is the truth in that portrayal; in a London that has 40% BAME residents.
Lenny is keen to highlight that the BBC’S Charter Agreement 2006 should represent the UK, its nations, regions and communities including the BAME community, which is seriously behind. When asked to explain for those in the audience who didn’t know what BAME stood for Lenny replied “Vexed”, these are people who have left the industry but just wanted to work, the percentage of people waiting for opportunities to write, act, crew for programme makers and commissioners. Lenny is taking up the mantle for them, a leadership role that Oona King, the chair of the event led a round of applause for. The Lecture and Q&A concluded on an optimistic note with the arrival of Ed Vaizey, the UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries who has shown a special interest in this issue. Giving us the hope that this time is different and with his government backing, as Lenny put it, we might have “jenga”. For Lenny Henry he can hope to not “be dead” to see change happen but with an invite to the CDN to reflect on the progress in 18 months’ time, hopefully a change gonna come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OQDDYgh5Jk The Annual Television Lecture is available in full on YouTube
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