Further to the article about R4 commissioning changes (R4 commissioning changes leave indies high and dry, producers claim, July 9, page 2), where is their moral integrity I wonder?
There was a promise that there would be a percentage of work for the independent sector based on a level playing field. That promise can now be seen for that it was, a disgraceful lack of honesty.
How on earth can Jeremy Howe claim that over the next two years writers, producers and actors will have “an unparalleled opportunity for creative endeavour”? The writers, producers and actors will, in the vast majority of cases, be left dangling while the BBC drama department will have “scope to build more creative relationships with suppliers”. Who with? Not the writers. Nor with most of the indies who have been hung out to dry by this policy that gives batches of work to a favoured few.
In two years most indies won’t be there to have a creative relationship. As for writers, they have steadily been sidelined in all this. Since the regime of Caroline Raphael and Howe, writers have had no right to discuss their aims, hopes and aspirations or even an idea, face to face with senior people in the drama department. Interesting that in the days when the department put out many more plays, there was an open house policy and writers could meet and talk with the decision makers direct.
But now writers are apparently to be sidelined for a couple more years. Howe and Denis Nowlan and their like will sit on their pay cheques (paid by public money) and “assess the effectiveness (of the batch system) throughout the tender period”. Do they live in the real world?
The indies and their writers will go to the wall for at least two years of silence. It’s no good saying that the writers will have to cast about among the companies who have got a slice of the pie. They will have their people already in place. Of course they will.
Nice work for the in-house producers. Many of the indies, who might be said to have been in competition with the in-house producers, can and will sink. Where is the moral integrity that encourages that sort of thinking? I think we all know.
Nick McCarty
West Park Avenue
Richmond
Surrey
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