BBC Told to Stop “Tick Box” Diversity Casting

The BBC must stop “tick box” diversity casting that “shoe-horns” ethnic minorities into inappropriate settings in its dramas, a major review commissioned by the corporation has warned. The Telegraph has the story.

The broadcaster is so keen to include ethnic minorities in its programmes that representation is being “shoe-horned” into inappropriate settings such as period dramas.

Murder Is Easy, BBC One’s 2023 adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, was cited in the review as an example of diversity being “superimposed” on a story.

“Audiences are particularly unforgiving of this if it challenges their expectations of what they have switched on to see. If there’s an Agatha Christie murder mystery over the Christmas period, they won’t expect to be taken into anti-colonial struggles alongside the country house murder,” the review said of the adaptation, which incorporated elements of West African Yoruba culture.

“Unless it’s very skilfully done, there is a danger it will feel overly didactic and preachy, as if the viewer is being lectured or a point is being made heavy-handedly. A vital component of quality for the viewer is authenticity.”

The BBC also received complaints about the colour-blinding casting of Great Expectations, broadcast in 2023, with mixed-race actress Shalom Brune-Franklin playing Estella.

The review said that productions “should consider their choices carefully” when it comes to colour-blind casting.

“In depicting an anachronistic historical world in which people of colour are able to rise to the top of society as scientists, artists, courtiers and Lords of the Realm, there may be the unintended consequence of erasing the past exclusion and oppression of ethnic minorities and breeding complacency about their former opportunities,” it said.

“What needs to be avoided is ethnic diversity which looks forced and tick box, and we found our interviewees of colour as emphatic on this point as those who were white.”

Rather than “a smattering of diversity in every programme which can lead to inauthentic portrayal” and look “clunky”, BBC commissioners should feel able to make an all-white programme, just as they can produce an all-black programme such as Mr Loverman or I May Destroy You, the review recommended.

In modern-day dramas, audiences were particularly critical of ethnic minorities appearing in job roles and areas of the UK where this would be unlikely.

The review pointed to the casting in BBC One crime drama Shetland. “In series eight, the Procurator Fiscal, Harry Lamont, was played by an actor of Tanzanian heritage. He took over from the previous Procurator Fiscal, Maggie Kean, who was of Sri Lankan heritage. In series 10, the Procurator Fiscal was played by Samuel Anderson, an actor of Jamaican and Irish heritage,” it noted.

Meanwhile, several members of the Shetland police force have been played by actors of Nigerian heritage, a couple resident on the island are played by Middle Eastern and Indian heritage actors respectively, and the vicar’s wife is played by Nina Toussaint-White, who is mixed-race.

“These actors are undoubtedly chosen for their acting ability, but there is clearly an over-representation of people of colour, particularly amongst senior law officers and police in Scotland (let alone Shetland) where the percentages of ethnic minorities are 3.2% and 1% respectively,” the report said.

However, the report’s authors said that the show remains popular, suggesting “the diversity of the Shetland cast may be part of its popular appeal”.

The review was carried out by Anne Morrison, a former BBC executive and former chair of BAFTA, and Chris Banatvala, an independent media consultant.

They spoke to more than 100 commissioners, executives, programme-makers and media experts as part of their research, as well as surveying more than 4,500 members of the public.

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