Exclusive: Broadcasters don’t want older women, say writers

Published Wednesday 25 February 2009 at 12:50 by Matthew Hemley

Leading screenwriters have accused UK broadcasters of being ageist, claiming commissioners are not interested in scripts with female characters over 40.

The writers, who are all members of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, said their scripts are often rejected or have to be rewritten completely if they feature women who are over 40, and have claimed commissioners are only interested in younger female characters who are “slim and attractive”.

Gail Renard, chair of the television committee at the Writers’ Guild, told The Stage she had once submitted a pilot for a BBC show featuring actresses in their 30s and 40s, but was asked by a producer to change the characters so that they were in their 20s, which she claimed had “killed the whole idea”.

Renard added: “Commissioners are not listening to writers’ original voices. It is a major problem - writers are not being allowed to write.”

The attack follows the formation of an Equity petition calling on the BBC, Channel 4, Five and ITV to address the shortage of leading parts for women over 40, which has so far been signed by more than 2,500 people.

Some industry figures who have signed the petition, such as actor Roger Lloyd Pack, have said broadcasters need to do more, but have also claimed writers should be including more characters for older performers in their work. But writers have argued that they often have little say over characters’ ages.

One, who did not want to be named, said: “The problem lies with commissioners, who only want to appeal to the young. A case in point might be the BBC’s Mistresses, which would arguably be all the more interesting for having a range of mistresses of all ages and backgrounds, as in real life.”

The writer continued: “Writers would love to have free rein to portray any age, sex, class, but are constantly getting the message from broadcasters that if you do want to get your script made, the only women they want to see are under 40.”

Another writer said commissioners favour male writers, who tend to write about men.

Writers’ Guild assistant general secretary Anne Hogben accused TV executives of being preoccupied with chasing ratings by “dumbing down”.

“It seems to me that a lot of TV drama is still being geared towards the young audiences, who have stopped watching TV on a TV set years ago. The real audience is mostly the over 50s, who complain, quite rightly, there is very little for them on the telly,” she added.

Responding to criticisms, BBC drama controller Ben Stephenson said it was hard to look at the BBC’s recent shows “without seeing the major role women over 40 play on and off screen”. He highlighted dramas such as Lark Rise to Candleford and Mistresses, and comedies such as Jam and Jerusalem, as examples.

He added: “It is patently untrue to suggest programmes only get commissioned if they have a young cast. Our job at the BBC is to commission the best work from the best writers, and across the genres to reflect the lives of everyone - men, women, young and old - who pays the licence fee.”