'It's extremely alarming'

Fewer than two out of every THOUSAND comedy shows on TV is made by a black or other ethnic director, according to a new report.

Directors UK found that a staggering 99.82 per cent of comedy shows were helmed by white people.

And in the sub-genres of panel shows, sketch shows and children’s comedy not a single show was made by a black, Asian or minority ethnic (Bame) director.

Directors UK analysed more than 55,000 individual episodes across 546 programmes up to the end of 2013, and found that across the whole of television, just 1.5 per cent of shows were made by Bame directors. A figure that has actually decreased over the past three years.

And comedy was one of the worst-performing genres, with just a single episode from the sample directed by a non-white person – one of Sky’s Little Crackers series.

The only worse performing genre was multi-camera and entertainment shows, the largest section of the report thanks to high-volume daily shows, where 99.94 per cent of directors were white.

The Directors UK report, published today, said: ‘The situation in the comedy genre is extremely alarming.

‘Without the single episode of Little Crackers made by a Bame director, the genre would have been directed entirely by white directors.’

In the greater population of Britain, 14 per cent of people are from Bame backgrounds.

Menhaj Huda, diversity chair at Directors UK, said: ‘Our report findings are both shocking and concerning. It reveals what many of us in the industry have been aware of for some time, but now we have hard evidence to show just how serious the lack of diversity in television really is for directors.

‘We are talking about British directors from Bame backgrounds whose experiences growing up in this country offer a different take on story-telling, a different perspective, but a voice that is valid which is effectively being shut out.’

The professional body wants the television industry to set diversity targets and create more training and entry opportunities for directors from Bame backgrounds.

Lenny Henry has been at the forefront of a campaign to try to encourage more diversity in television, which he launched 18 months ago, saying: ‘Great programmes are produced by the multi-cultural many as opposed to the mono-cultural elite.’

He will be delivering a keynote speech about what progress has been made at Bafta’s London HQ next week.

Published: 12 Nov 2015