The Stage

Actors and viewers demand better TV credits

Published Thursday 2 February 2012 at 16:57 by Matthew Hemley

Thousands of television viewers have backed an actor-led campaign calling on broadcasters to give performers more prominent credits at the end of programmes.

Members of the public were invited to have their say on how broadcasters display credits by taking part in a survey drawn up by union Equity at the end of last year.

The survey was launched following ongoing complaints from actors that credits are displayed too small or rolled too fast for viewers to read.

More than 10,000 people responded, with 95.2% saying splitting the screen at the end of a programme or squeezing the credits makes them harder to read, and 88.7% stating they get “very annoyed” about this.

According to the survey, the majority of television viewers believe credits are important for both actors and audiences and more than half would like to see credits available online as well as on television.

Equity general secretary Christine Payne said the way credits are displayed “reveals an underlying lack of respect for the performers who work to make UK TV drama, comedy and light entertainment so successful”.

She said Equity has been campaigning on the issue since 2004, and that the union has previously raised the matter with broadcasters. However, she said nothing had been done so far to address performers’ complaints, and added that it would be a “mistake” for broadcasters to dismiss the recent findings.

“While the viewers who took part in this survey may be a tiny fraction of the millions of UK citizens who watch TV every day, there is very little comfort for broadcasters in their responses,” she said.

Comments left by respondents who took part have been collated in a 500-page document, which highlights how many programmes have squeezed credits, sometimes in order to promote the next show in the schedule.

Programmes highlighted include Great Expectations and Sherlock on the BBC and Downton Abbey on ITV.

One respondent wrote: “Just about every programme on the BBC at present shrinks the credits and has some juvenile idiot prattling about what’s coming next.”

Another said: “With Downton Abbey I wanted to see the names of several actors playing certain parts as I liked their performances, but found it impossible as the credits were squeezed too much.”

Equity vice president Jean Rogers said that “entry after entry shows how much end credits are squeezed, squashed and crunched” and how “worked up viewers are about this”.

She added: “Surely broadcasters don’t want their programmes producing such negative feelings in the public. It is quite clearly counter-productive.”

A BBC spokeswoman said the Corporation is “always mindful of how and when we squeeze credits and will only do so if we believe there is a benefit to the audience”.

She added: “Our research shows that viewers respond well to this method of informing our audiences about our programmes when navigating between channels.”

An ITV spokesman said it designs its “standard credits to ensure that they are legible for viewers”.

“We very rarely receive complaints that they are unreadable or scrolled too quickly,” he said.

Equity is planning to write to broadcasters asking them how they can work together to respond to the survey’s findings.