The Traitors, another Ofcom and BBC Failure for Scotland
A post on Linked In by Documentary filmmaker Peter Strachan has gone viral with over 75k views, exposing the shockingly few numbers of people employed on the hit tv show The Traitors come from Scotland. Strachan wrote: “Investigating the production credits for Series 3 of The Traitors, currently on BBC ONE, the data reveals a truly shocking picture.”
Strachan continued: “This is a BBC Network “Scottish” commission awarded to the Scottish Office of a production company HQ-ed in London. Yet only 4.0% of above the line roles are filled by off-screen talent based in Scotland. Removing the Glasgow based Executive Producer (BBC), the % of above the line roles would be zero. Only 6.32% of below the line roles are Scotland based. A total of just 6.05% of the big production team are based in Scotland. 22.22% of the specialist roles and facilities are based in Scotland.”
“81.40% of the production team are based in London.”
But anyone who read our coverage of the report by Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates Ltd (O&O), commissioned by Screen Scotland in November last year will know that’s consistent with the finding that “80% of the total episodes made by the Top 15 for the BBC were commissioned from producers headquartered in London.”
As Strachan points out the situation exposes the fact that The Traitors production fails to meet one of the three Ofcom regional production criteria. These regulations require producers to meet two of three criteria to qualify as out-of-London: having a “substantive base” in the region, investing 70% of “production spend” outside the English capital and having at least 50% of the off-screen talent based outside London.
Strachan states: “This is the tip of the iceberg. We have found many other supposedly Scottish productions are failing to create jobs for broadcast freelancers in Scotland. It’s proof that the BBC is not commissioning fairly and that its spend isn’t translating into a fair level of job opportunity across the UK.”
Max Goldbart, Jesse Whittock at Deadline picked up the story quoting Screen Scotland Director David Smith who told Deadline his team is “actively engaging” with the BBC and Studio Lambert regarding The Traitors and, while improvement is required, the show is on a “journey.” “This is a show that is representing an element of Scotland, its geography, really positively, so as a consequence we are supportive of it,” he added.
This is a complete diversion. There are no Ofcom regulations about “representing Scotland’s geography positively”, the point as well made by Strachan is about jobs and opportunities and access to the funds of the national broadcaster which we all fund through the licence fee. Strachan has accused the BBC of “de facto cultural bias”, which is hard to refute.
The highlands are not just a pretty backdrop, and the show has zero cultural context to the location, which in itself is pretty offensive.
Strachan was at pains to point out he is a supporter of the BBC, but said:
“The concerns over our PSB’s commissioning and production practices aren’t nonsense. They are very real. The Traitors is undoubtedly a significant and welcome boost to the local economy of Ross & Cromarty/Inverness-shire. But the BBC needs to understand that a regional commission like this should also be about developing and supporting the people across all of the UK that make programmes. Not just those based in London and the South East of England. I am a champion of the BBC but, if true, it’s response in this article only further highlights the issue. The data clearly speaks a truth.”
So why is this constantly happening?
Cultural bias, lack of any regulatory control, a complete failure from BBC Scotland, and a political failure in both London and Edinburgh would seem the obvious answers, though I would add a complete lack of cultural ambition from within Scotland to be another. The problem is that this has just become completely normalised. People from within the industry just shrug and say “It has always been like this” or “This isn’t news”.
Why is there no champion for the Scottish industry?
Angus Robertson, the Culture Secretary responded saying: “This is a shocking report and raises serious questions for the BBC and Ofcom. I will be seeking meetings with both. Scotland’s growing screen sector has been a success story in recent years and must not be undermined.”
The situation is lamentable.
If there were any political drive or impetus to do anything about this the implementation of the Media Act 2024, the upcoming Public Service Media Review from Ofcom and BBC Charter Renewal in 2027 would provide opportunities to overhaul the situation and provide the jobs and cultural output that broadcasting in Scotland that we deserve.
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If the BBC spent a fair share of their budget on truly Scottish made TV, then one priority area would surely be children’s TV.
There seem to be vanishingly few Scottish children’s TV programmes.
The list on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_programmes_produced_by_BBC_Scotland
suggests that Down on the Farm is the only Scottish children’s programme currently being made by the BBC!
(though the BBC report elsewhere that Balamory is to be revived in 2026.)
It’d be interesting to know how many Scottish TV programmes for older children or teenagers have ever been made by the BBC (or anyone else). I suspect the number is embarrassingly small – I can’t think of any!
If our children are growing up without being able to watch people who sound like them on TV, this is largely the fault of the BBC.
There was ‘Maggie’ (1981) for young adults, and ‘Katie Morag’ (2013-14), and BBC Alba produces quite a lot of programmes for children in Gaelic.
I hadn’t heard of Maggie – but it was made 44 years ago, which does illustrate the scale of the problem!
I found this today:
https://www.screen.scot/news/2024/november/bbc-childrens-and-education-commissions-tv-drama-series-adaptation-gifted-novels
It looks promising, but programmes like this are all too rare.
Along with the lack of Scottish coverage of the Scotland football team,
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24398975.euro-2024-calls-bespoke-coverage-scotland-national-team/ ,
it does look like there’s currently a culture war in Scotland – the broadcasters’ war against Scottish TV!
To be fair, the BBC’s wilingness to have this happen on a programme called “The Traitors” is a stroke of genius. A true masterpiece of self-harm.
Chortle!
STV could make, to broadcast widely over the ITV network, a riveting satirical mini-series, about the machinations of Westminster parliament, but every contributor with a distinct Scottish accent, with a lot of straight-talking and vernacular, amidst the correct technical terms for the policy issues, problems that the hon members on the other side are botching up on, again. (etc). On one level, it is Yes Minister meets River City..
The elephant in the room (that self-explains, as events unfold..) is the exact issue mentioned, which is turned on its head: no London-centric people involved, but about a London-based, and full-British in effect situation. Though the protagonists all have a Scottish accent, they address (and/or strikingly fail to address)… UK-wide, non-devolved issues, it is a comedy-protest hybrid, using only Scottish writers & actors (including an RP speaking narrator.. a good voice actor), and at least Scottish-based*, sympathetic producers, camera crew, sound & lighting, the lot, who buy into and enjoy the concept, so elect to join making of program, but are not doing it because the team is making it/ it is what they are told they are doing. *already immersed in the milieu, and so feel Scottish-friendly.
Can we consider books written in English, using the standard genre conventions of English literary form to even be Scottish books? To my mind, no. Yet this is the marketable standard upon which funding decisions made by Creative Scotland are judged is it no? How likely then is it that anything contrary will emerge under the watchful eye of great NATO champion, German Boab? If I was a betting man, which I am not, I would wager that nothing shall significantly change in my lifetime nor yours except that everything shall by subtle degrees become increasingly worse.
And now the news in dreich….
nivir taks muckle tae shak a puckle anglicisers oot the widwurk
but if kaint tae be dry rot
how no jist burn the lot
A doot that fit ye ken aboot Scots wud cover a postage stamp.
ye’re jist jealous cos ye’re English & ye canny rhyme
if no fur fascists like U, Scotland wid be mair fine
The world’s bestselling children’s book series (JK Rowling’s Harry Potter) was written in Scotland.
Julia Donaldson wrote many of her most popular books, including The Gruffalo, in Scotland.
Beatrix Potter was inspired to write by the time she spent in Perthshire.
Enid Blyton, possibly the world’s bestselling children’s author of all time, was married to a Scot.
However, none of these authors were Scottish – in fact, all were English (and female – moving to Scotland seems to be a good commercial move for female English children’s writers!).
Few of their books were set in Scotland or featured Scottish characters.
It’s disappointing that no Scottish children’s books have achieved anything like the commercial success of the authors above.
Is this purely a matter of chance, or could there be some structural reason at play?
It is not only children’s authors, there is a long tradition of folk moving from places in England to write their books in what I suppose is regarded as the relative peace & tranquility of the Scottish countryside, Highlands & Islands, whilst here such English authors writing in English seem more than happy to hoover up the funding from the likes of Creative Scotland or Scottish Book Trust. In Moray for example all Arts funding seems to go directly to the Findhorn Foundation which may go some way towards explaining why we continue to be on the trajectory we are on, i.e., the further homogenisation of a standardised bourgeoise British/English culture & the further consolidation of a NATO friendly Northern British State where the indigenous voice is relegated tae a wee bit dialogue atween street sweepers, shelf stackers & shop workers, or if ye like, them that spend much of their lives doing the actual graft they have to do just to get by whilst directly supporting those office bound pen pushers impervious to their existence even during the weekly trip to fill their trolley to the gunnels with vast quantities of booze, luxury hams, cheeses, condiments, & a German sausage or 3 in honour of the Boab
There’s loads of writing taking place in Scotland. In fact, there’s probably more writing going on in Scotland today than ever before. People are writing and sharing whole novels on their phones. Writing is one of the most accessible forms of creative practice there is.
I think the complaint here is that the arts in Scotland aren’t parochial or nationalistic, narrowly and self-consciously ‘Scottish’. But the arts in Scotland have never been so small-minded.
oh yes they have, the bias is palpable, despite its protests to the contrary Scotland remains a conservative miserable philistine wee place which still regards English Literary form & language to be superior to the speech, songs, stories & poems ae the native Scottish person. Marketability & therefore how much money a piece of work is expected to generate is still the yardstick by which ‘art’ in Scotland is measured & as such the 2nd rate is celebrated at the cost of what micht have been. The appointment of NATO champion German Boab speaks volumes with regards to the respect given by the Scottish government to any genuine literary tradition which not coincidentally has always had to struggle against an antagonistic & thoroughly corrupt academic, bureaucratic & political framework. As things stand therefore, it would appear to me at least that fk all has changed & regardless of demand the future shall be hail bland.
But art throughout Europe and North America is measured by its value as a commodity. Scottish artists are no more or less interested in monetising their product than they are anywhere else.
I don’t know the extent of your acquaintance with art in Scotland, but my experience of it is that a lot of what’s being made today (most, perhaps) is anything but ‘bland’, ‘conservative’, ‘miserable,’ and/or ‘philistine’.
And there are hundreds if not thousands of makers in Scotland today who work in what have long been marketed as traditional ‘Scottish’ idioms.
small-minded, elitist & almost exclusively operated by & for the English university educated middle classes is what the so-called ‘arts’ scene & particularly those projects which are approved & funded always have been & it does no one any favours since artists regularly receive a year’s funding create one book or piece which sells fk all & are never heard of again
You’ve a rather small-minded, elitist, and exclusive view of what art is, mark.
State patronage, through government agencies like Creative Scotland, is as irrelevant as commercial success is to the making of art in Scotland. Most artists in Scotland work independently and non-commercially. The ‘arts scene’ in Scotland is as immensely vibrant, exciting, and diverse as it’s ever been. Maybe you need to get out more.
Peter Pan
… Treasure Island, Kidnapped…
The Coral Island
@250112 would be nice is this were only the first instance when the quango you seem to regard so highly was shown to be more than slightly suspect https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/national/creative-scotland-implements-new-controls-after-row-over-explicit-show-funding-124809/
I wonder what would happen if these funding bodies were to change their criteria and insist that only Scottish born persons who had left school at 16 at the latest and done at least 10 to 15 years work outside academia were the only ones to be given funding provided they created work true to their own experience & using their own vernacular, would this make independence more or less likely, & what if the snp were to reverse its position on NATO and thereby give a genuine alternative to British State control, I mean otherwise we might as well have a few shows next year wie upfront titles such as GLASGO LUVS NATO, BE THE BOMB U WANNA BE, THE GREAT CREATIVE BOMBING CAMPAIGN, BOMBS FROM THE BORDERS etc.
I’m not a huge fan of Creative Scotland (though I have used it in the dim and distant to obtain funding for several community action groups that were seeking to use creativity to address local health issues). I reckon the money that the Scottish government disburses through such quangos would be more effectively used by local authorities to provide creative spaces (galleries, workshops, studios, performance spaces, libraries, etc.) in local communities, where those communities themselves could engage in their own creative work, vernacular or otherwise. I’m all for local communities being much more independent of the patronage of central government and its creatures like Creative Scotland.
I would deny anyone access to such creative spaces on the basis of their ethnicity or nativity or class or on their artistic practice. Whatever your background and wherever you were born and whatever form your creative activity takes, if you live and work in Scotland then you’re a ‘Scottish’ artist.
Sorry! That last paragraph should, of course, begin, ‘I WOULDN’T deny anyone access to such creative spaces…’
I believe the new quango Destructive Scotland whose remit is to celebrate our participation in several overseas bombing campaigns whilst allowing child poverty to increase & old age pensioners to freeze to death will be the quango to beat all quangos
In the BBC’s universe Scotland is a UK region with backdrops that make British television more interesting*. Few shows are led from Scotland with Scottish presenters with guests from UK and rest of the world. Often framed as a Visit UK or Property type promo with locals as a minority voice. Current affairs readers here know to avoid as so biased! (Web news review at Talk Media podcast sounds so natural with Indy friendly presenters looking in at least of world as BC does too!)
Now of course we do have a large number of people that have made Scotland their home but for balance we need more shows led from here with our many different accents.
Currently you could live here and rarely see or hear broadcast media where Scottish voices are in a majority. People sit in pubs watching rolling news with Anglo/American voices. Drama has a token person from ‘Celtic fringe’.
Books are different although again Scotland might be a backdrop rather than a nation with its own voices.
Music from our talented next generation isn’t scared to use Scots words.
Folk music thrives especially with Gaelic music (Celtic Connections etc). BBC Alba TV has news and programmes from other European nations. Maybe the most self confident of stations here but of course in a language the majority don’t know. (Apart from our many place names!)
*Check how many channels are on iPlayer and Sounds and you can see the small amount of Scottish programming. Minority interest in Ukania terms!
A BOMB A DAY IS A-OK!
BOMBER BOAB & THE BOMB BRIGADE
BOMBING FOR BLIGHTY: A SCOTTISH NATO STORY
GERMAN BOAB’S GUIDE TO THE BEST OF BRITISH BOMBS BASED IN SCOTLAND
BLAIRISH BOAB & THE BOMB THAT COULD DO NO WRONG
THE EVOLOUTION OF SCOTTISH THOUGHT: FROM PLATO TO NATO
ALL YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE GREAT NATO: SCOTTISH GET UP & GO