A revolution on tv? | thearticle

There is a revolution going on in British television and radio. Suddenly there are more leading Black and Asian figures on top news, sports and drama programmes: Clive Myrie is replacing

John Humphrys as the presenter of _Mastermind_, Alex Scott is replacing Dan Walker as the new presenter of _Football Focus_, Amol Rajan and Mishal Husain are the first Asian presenters of

the _Today _programme, previously an all-white programme. During the 2020 Euros, both the BBC and ITV had a number of Black pundits, including Alex Scott, Ian Wright, Ashley Cole, Eni Aluko,

Rio Ferdinand, Micah Richards and Jermaine Jenas.  Television drama has also undergone enormous changes, with leading Black writers, directors and actors. Last year, Sir Steve McQueen’s

five-part series, _Small Axe_, featured terrific performances by actors including Letitia Wright, John Boyega, Shaun Parkes and Micheal Ward. Michaela Coel created, wrote, co-directed and

starred in the BBC1/HBO drama series _I May Destroy You_ (2020), about a young woman’s experience of sexual assault, which received four leading BAFTA awards earlier this year. Hugo Blick

cast a number of leading Black actors in his outstanding BBC series, _The Shadow Line _(2011) and _Black Earth Rising _(2018), including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michaela Coel, Tamara Tunie and

Lucian Tsamati. One of the most popular TV series of recent years, _Line of Duty _(2012-the present) cast Lennie James and Thandiwe Newton as leading characters in two of the series and Ace

Bhatti played PCC Rohan Sindwhani in series five and six.  Finally, there are Black presenters who broke through into factual programmes. They include the TV historian, David Olusoga, who in

the last seven years has presented a number of documentary programmes on slavery, Windrush, _Civilisations_ and _Statue Wars;_ Christopher Jackson, a geoscientist at Manchester University,

who became the first Black scientist to present the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on British television in 2020; and Sir Lenny Henry, who has recently presented a number of music

documentaries on the BBC.  From news programmes to history and science, from cop shows to the most acclaimed recent TV series, Black and Asian talent have broken into the TV and radio

mainstream in the last ten years or so. This is unrecognisable from the TV culture of the last thirty years of the 20th century. There were popular presenters of children’s programmes,

several newsreaders and well-known comedians and entertainers.  What has changed? First, new generations of actors, TV presenters and news readers have grown up in Britain. Ian Wright,

Lennie James and Steve McQueen were all born in the Sixties; David Olusoga, Thandiwe Newton, Mishal Husain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Christopher Jackson in the Seventies; and Amol Rajan, Alex

Scott and Michaela Coel in the Eighties.  Second, there is America. American TV and Hollywood have been open to Black talent in a way Britain never was. A number of major Black British

actors made their names in American TV and cinema, such as David Harewood (_Homeland_), Idris Elba (_The Wire_, then the star of the BBC’s _Luther_), Cush Jumbo (_The Good Wife _and _The

Good Fight_, before winning a number of awards for performances on the London stage) and David Oyelowo who started out in BBC1’s _Spooks _and then moved to Hollywood, playing Martin Luther

King in _Selma _and _Don’t Let Go_.  Third, and most important, is the Black Lives Matter movement which opened the eyes and minds of TV executives to Black talent, actors, but also writers

and directors and, crucially, subjects. McQueen’s drama series on the experience of Black Britons from the Mangrove affair to racism in the British police could never have been commissioned

in the 1970s or 1980s. Look at how few dramas in the _Play for Today _series featured Black actors or stories between 1970-84. Think of how few Black actors had major parts in TV series

then, compared with Michaela Coel in Hugo Blick’s _Black Earth Rising _or in her own series, _I May Destroy You_. Idris Elba played the title role in _Luther_ and Lennie James and Thandiwe

Newton each played the leading role in a whole series of _Line of Duty_. David Olusoga isn’t just a talking head in his programmes on slavery; he’s the presenter. No sooner had Christopher

Jackson presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures than he was being interviewed on Radio 4’s _The Life Scientific_. It took years to have a Black guest on _Desert Island Discs_.

Within 14 months of the murder of George Floyd, there were six Black guests.  But the people who make these decisions are still White. There has been a revolution in representation, but the

real revolution will come when we have the first Black Head of News and Current Affairs, Chair of the BBC and Director-General of the BBC. The twelve current members of the BBC Board are all

White. Of the ten members of the BBC’s Executive Committee, only one is Black and she is Director of Creative Diversity. Even Channel 4 has only two non-White members of its board. More

BAME faces on the board will be the next TV revolution.  A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to

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