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New Statesman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Peter Kosminsky: We need a BBC that is brave
Photo by Bailey-Cooper/Alamy One could be forgiven for thinking that British television is at the strongest it has ever been. More than 12 million of us tuned in to watch the Gavin and Stacey finale. Mr Bates vs The Post Office sparked a wave of national anger and forced the government into action after years of journalist trying to raise awareness of the Horizon Post Office scandal. Baby Reindeer, Adolescence and Toxic Town have all been enormous successes on both sides of the Atlantic. But those at the very top of the industry are worried. 'We're in dire straits,' Peter Kosminsky, one of the UK's most highly respect TV professionals and the man behind the BBC's Wolf Hall, told the New Statesman podcast. While we are able to watch a variety of high-quality programming, dramas that are 'peculiarly British' are under threat of extinction. The likes of Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Apple TV will not make them. 'The streamers say they're speaking to an international audience, and they make programmes that are of interest to an international audience,' Kosminsky explained. 'What they actually mean is American audiences.' 'Mr Bates vs The Post Office doesn't get made' in this world, he warns Kosminsky has worked in the television industry for 45 years, and for all of the UK's major public service broadcasters. A director, writer and producer, he has won every accolade possible: multiple Baftas, Royal Television Society awards, Golden Globes along with individual recognition for what he has personally contributed to British television. His most recent triumph was the final part of Wolf Hall, broadcast in 2024. But the cost of making high end drama, documentary and comedy has soared in recent years – 'by a factor of five or six', Kosminsky says. Not because of inflation, but because the streamers have driven up the costs. 'They've arrived here, competed to use our crews and our facilities, and they have deep pockets, and they pay a lot of money.' The homegrown sector – BBC, Channel 4 and ITV – have been priced out. They can't compete. 'It's interesting talking to Patrick Spence, the producer who developed Mr Bates vs The Post Office,' Kosminsky says. 'He said he wouldn't develop it now. Why? Because there would be no prospect of it getting made. And that's really worrying.' Both Mr Bates and Wolf Hall were turned down by all the big streamers, Kosminsky told the New Statesman. Actors and executives on both took significant pay cuts to make sure they even made it to screen. Both Kosminsky and executive producer Colin Callender waived 90 per cent of their production fee. Peter Straughan who wrote the adaptation and actor Mark Rylance who played Cromwell 'also made a huge financial sacrifice'. Kosminsky dismisses those who cite the success of Adolescence or Toxic Town – both written by Jack Thorne and both snapped up by Netflix – as a challenge to his argument. 'Adolescence was a fantastic drama, and I applaud Netflix for making it. But just stop and think for a moment. What's adolescence about at root? It's about a murder carried out in a school of one pupil by another pupil. Not a problem they're unfamiliar with in America.' The same goes with Toxic Town, Kosminsky says of the drama depicting the fight by a group of Corby mothers to get justice for their children damaged by contaminated waste from the nearby steelworks. Stop again and think about the subject, Kosminsky says. 'Anyone watched Erin Brockovich recently?' Reflecting on his career, Kosminsky is someone trying to 'challenge the orthodoxy'. He wants to ask uncomfortable questions of the rich and powerful. A television maker, yes, but a public service journalist at heart. Audiences don't want to be 'harangued all the time', he says, 'but occasionally it's our job to say, hang on a minute, have you thought about it like this? And actually, are you really comfortable with this? And if not, what could we possibly do about it?' He has made powerful dramas on the Israel-Palestine conflict (The Promise), British peacekeepers who bear witness to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia (Warriors), the experience of young British Muslims post 7/7 (Britz), and the role of scientist Dr David Kelly in the run-up to the Iraq War (The Government Inspector). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Kosminsky places the blame for the British TV's current predicament firmly at the Government's door. He says they 'refuse' to help public service broadcasters make these programmes by rejecting the idea of a streamer's levy. A levy would make it compulsory for the streaming giants to pay 5 per cent of all money earned from British subscribers into a separate fund to be used to make programmes where a UK public service broadcaster is part of the commission. Similar schemes are in place in 17 European countries, including France and Germany where Netflix unsuccessfully tried to take legal action to prevent the levy being introduced. 'When I asked one of the founders of Netflix, whether they would challenge it in the court if it was brought in here in this country, he said, 'No, as long as it was a level playing field across all the streamers,'' Kosminsky said. So why is the Government saying no? 'Because they fear that it would be perceived by the current administration in America as a tariff.' This misses a fundamental point, he stressed. The streamers can get some of the levy back if they partner with UK broadcasters on productions. 'So, it's not a tariff,' Kosminsky insists: no other tariff allows you to get some of your money back. 'And the British government has failed to make that argument… I think the truth is that… the British government currently is disappointingly craven,' Kosminsky said in a damning rebuke. 'There's a proud 100-year tradition of public service broadcasting in this country. Stand up for it. Defend it. Don't just say, 'Yes, Donald; you're not very happy. Allow us to bow down and lick your boots.' It's pathetic. It's embarrassing.' On 22 July, the Guardian reported that Kosminsky had written to the Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, accusing her of trying to 'bully' the BBC over its Gaza coverage. In recent weeks, Nandy has levelled intense criticism the corporation, refusing to say she has confidence in the leadership of its director general, Tim Davie, and asking why no one has lost their job over the broadcast of a documentary about Gaza, narrated by the 13-year-old son of a Hamas official. The letter reminded Nandy that past attempts by government to place political pressure on the BBC had ended badly. 'There's a dreadfully dishonourable tradition of this,' he told the New Statesman. (He cited both the suicide of David Kelly shortly after being revealed as the source for a BBC's reporting on the dodgy dossier behind the Iraq war, and the Thatcher government's attempt to pull a 1985 BBC documentary on Northern Ireland.) 'I think you have to be very careful as a government when you hold the purse strings of what is supposed to be an impartial broadcaster whose job is to speak truth to power in a democracy,' Kosminsky said. 'When you call for sackings and by implication the sacking of the chief executive of the BBC, I think that is deeply troubling… It feels like you're placing financial pressure on the organisation. You're saying, 'Do what I'm asking you to do and otherwise you won't get the money that we all know you want.'' Was the Culture Secretary really 'bullying' the BBC, or was she simply saying to its upper echelons, on behalf of the nation, 'get your house in order; we've had enough'? Davie's tenure has been plagued with difficulties. Soon into his role it emerged that the BBC religion editor Martin Bashir had misled Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, to secure a Panorama interview with her 25 years earlier. Davie bears no responsibility whatsoever for the original misdemeanour. A host of scandals followed: the failure to tackle multiple and ongoing complaints against former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace; bullying allegations levelled at senior staff; serious criminality on the part of former news anchor Huw Edwards. Others involved editorial failures, including the live broadcasting of an anti-Semitic rant by Bob Vylan at this year's Glastonbury and the broadcasting of a Gaza documentary linked to Hamas. Does Nandy speak for the public when she says the corporation has 'a problem of leadership'? A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the Guardian that license fee payers rightly expect 'serious failures' to be acted upon so that they don't happen again. 'The BBC is operationally and editorially independent of government, and we will always defend this principle. However, there is an important distinction between being independent and being accountable.' If something has gone wrong, Kosminsky counters, it is for Ofcom or the BBC Board to hold the corporation to account. It is not the job of government. 'What I'm worried about is the chilling effect of this. You can see [it] in other Gaza programmes that the BBC has backed away from in recent years,' Kosminsky says, referring to the BBC's decision not to broadcast Gaza: Doctors under Attack, leaving it instead to Channel 4. Programmes like these, he says, are 'just too hot to handle because they're nervous of what the reaction will be in certain quarters. We need a BBC that is brave enough to not care about ruffling a few feathers.' Few would disagree with that final sentiment. But there are many in the industry, both inside the BBC and out, who see a wider problem. That perhaps the exodus of senior, long-standing editorial staff over the past five years has left the corporation depleted. There is a lack of diversity of thought, and years of both editorial and life experience have been lost, providing a vacuum at times in sound editorial judgement. 'Just because I'm saying the government should lay off the BBC and let [the board] and Ofcom do their job, it doesn't mean I'm saying I would personally endorse everything that's going on at the BBC. The two are not linked,' Kosminsky explained. While having the 'highest respect' for Tim Davie 'as a person', for example, Kosminsky expressed his 'surprise' that 'a man with no journalistic or editorial experience in his past' should have been made the BBC's editor-in-chief. 'If I'd been asked my opinion of the appointment – and I knew Tim well as head of BBC Worldwide – I would have said, 'No, I'm not sure that is quite right.' He's a great bloke, fantastic asset to the organisation, but I don't think he has enough editorial experience. I think the governors got that wrong.' For Kosminsky, the failure of the government to address the impossibility for UK public service broadcasters to compete with the streamers and its recent criticism of the BBC are inextricably linked. 'It seems to be the tentpole of our foreign policy is to butter up the Americans and unfortunately our domestic broadcasting is going to be the casualty,' he said. 'Lisa Nandy has had virtually nothing to say about all the problems that broadcasting is facing in this country… The only time she's popped her head above the parapet is to start calling for sackings at the BBC.' While this 'may get lot of sort of nods from certain quarters' – the US – 'it's extremely dangerous'. Kosminsky believes we have a government 'too susceptible to pressure from outside' and unwilling to stand up for and defend our national institutions. Instead, it is 'prepared to grovel to outside forces for reasons of limited financial and political gain'. And, Kosminsky believes, this attitude comes from the top. 'We have seen the way our Prime Minister behaves around Donald Trump… Actively fanning the ego of this man in the way he has been is really quite an unpleasant thing to observe and it filters down through everything. Anything that might upset Donald Trump and therefore by extension anything that might upset Israel is stamped on. And dear old Lisa Nandy, in my opinion, is part of this government. Keir Starmer is her boss and she's performing her role.' We are in a delicate place. When broadcasters can no longer make programmes that hold truth to power, 'that's just a little bit of our freedom of speech gone', Peter Kosminsky argues. And while future governments might be relieved about that, 'our democracy is the worse for it'. Perhaps a streamers levy is not the answer, but the government does not seem to be coming up with any solutions of its own. If it does not intervene, we will 'end up with a situation where the editorial decisions about everything we watch here in the UK on our television, are made half a world away in California,' Kosminsky warns. 'I regret that.' Hannah's full conversation with Peter Kosminsky is available as a New Statesman podcast. [Further reading: The BBC is afraid] Related
New York Times
10-07-2025
- New York Times
At Least 13 People Died by Suicide Amid U.K. Post Office Scandal, Report Says
At least 13 postal workers in Britain died by suicide amid a post office scandal in which about 1,000 postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for theft and other crimes, according to a report released this week as part of an inquiry into the scandal. Wyn Williams, the retired high court judge who is leading the inquiry, wrote in the report, published on Tuesday, that by his estimation, more than 10,000 people were eligible for some kind of redress and that he expected that number to grow. The victims range from postal workers held liable for tens or hundreds of pounds in financial discrepancies to those who were wrongly tried, convicted, imprisoned and made to pay back tens of thousands of pounds. They were all blamed for apparent shortfalls at their postal branches across Britain that, it turned out, had actually been caused by a flawed information technology system. More than 1,000 people were prosecuted from 2000 to at least 2013, but thousands of others were blamed and held responsible, according to the report. The 166-page volume, the first from the inquiry, which began in September 2020, focuses on the victims, including exasperating efforts to get compensation from the postal service. The scandal burst into the public eye last year after an ITV television series, 'Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,' dramatized the stories of the victims. Soon after, the British Parliament passed a law quashing the convictions. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Wales Online
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
'First of its kind' streaming deal sees Disney Plus add 'best police drama ever'
'First of its kind' streaming deal sees Disney Plus add 'best police drama ever' The unique deal will also see some huge titles available for free Disney Plus has announced a 'first of its kind' agreement that will see the streaming platform swap select content with a major broadcaster. A deal has been struck between The Walt Disney Company and ITV that will see the companies share some of their biggest hits across their streaming platforms. In a statement, ITV described it as: "A new first-of-its-kind initiative to carry each other's streaming services... in the form of a promotional selection, billed as a 'Taste of ITVX' and a 'Taste of Disney+' respectively. Put it simply, what it means for viewers is that from July 16, users will have access to a selection of titles previously only available on Disney+. These will be made at no extra cost. Vera will soon be streaming on DIsney+ (Image: ITV ) In return, some of ITV's biggest titles will also be available for Disney+ subscribers, on their platform. While these shows will have previously been accessible through the broadcaster's own app, the advantage here is users will be able to binge them free of advertisements, provided they are signed up to the appropriate subscription. Article continues below It is great news for viewers who may never have been able to give shows such as the multi-award winning The Bear a try. The series was described one fan as: "A phenomenal series that takes viewers on an unforgettable journey through the highs and lows of its intense narrative." Likewise, older ITV produced series could find a brand new lease of life thanks to their inclusion on Disney+. For instance, Vera has been dubbed "one of the best police dramas ever written for television." Select series of ITV's hit reality series and gameshows will also find a new streaming home, with Love Island and The 1% Club added to Disney+ as well. Disney+ viewers will be able to stream the following: Mr Bates vs The Post Office Spy Among Friends Selected seasons of Love Island Endeavour Vera Karen Pirie, season one Olivia Attwood's Price of Perfection The 1% Club Early seasons of The Bear will soon be streaming free (Image: Copyright 2023, FX Networks. All Rights Reserved. ) The following Disney+ titles will be streaming free on ITVX, although exact dates for all titles is yet to be confirmed: The Bear (select seasons) Andor (Season One) Only Murders In The Building (select seasons) The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (select seasons) The Kardashians (select seasons) Lilo and Stitch: The Series Phineas and Ferb It's not the first time Disney original series have been released at a later date on the ITVX platform. Viewers can currently catch up on super powered comedy Extraordinary as well as fantasy adventure series Renegade Nell, from the creator of Happy Valley. Viewers have been quick to react to the news, and wondering what it means for them. Similar deals have been seen before, for example with a number of BBC dramas finding a new life on Netflix. Get Disney+ from £4.99 This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more £4.99 Disney+ Get Disney+ here Product Description A Disney+ subscription is now available from £4.99 per month, offering hit shows like Andor, The Bear and Alien: Earth, plus countless titles from Star Wars and Marvel. One person posted on social media, saying: "This is huge and I hope there's more like this to come! Cancel those subscriptions, it's the return of free TV." Another added: "Wow, this is a wild crossover! Love Island and The Bear sharing a platform? Never saw that coming." Article continues below Joe Earley, President, Direct-to-Consumer, Disney Entertainment commented: 'We are proud of this innovative collaboration with ITV, which will allow us to bring Disney+ customers some of the UK's favourite and buzzworthy shows and encourage ITVX viewers to discover some of Disney+'s award-winning series and blockbuster films.'
Scotsman
09-07-2025
- Scotsman
Why public needs to stay angry over Post Office Horizon IT scandal
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When ITV's Mr Bates vs the Post Office hit our screens, it caused a public outcry over the fate of innocent sub-postmasters whose lives were ruined by false accusations of fraud and similar offences. The Post Office Horizon IT scandal had been covered by the media for years, but it took the humanising force of a drama to give the issue the prominence it deserved and finally begin to get justice for all those who were wronged. However, even though the programme was only broadcast last year, it feels like the scandal is fading from public consciousness, as people assume we know the worst and that the victims are being properly compensated. The first volume of a public inquiry's report into what happened shows why our attention must not wane. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Inquiry chair Wyn Williams found at least 13 people, including six former sub-postmasters, had taken their own lives and 59 had contemplated suicide, while others had self-harmed, turned to alcohol, or endured abuse from local people who thought they were guilty. It was, he said, impossible to tell how many people had suffered but he pointed to the 10,000 or so eligible claimants in compensation schemes. The Post Office Horizon IT scandal is the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history, affecting thousands of people (Picture: Dan Kitwood) | Getty Images Fiction of infallible accounting system The problems happened because faults with Fujitsu's Horizon IT system used by the Post Office wrongly suggested there were inexplicable shortfalls in the accounts. This led some people to use their life-savings to pay back 'illusory' losses, while others were sent to prison. Ravinder Naga even pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit – 'stealing' £35,000 – to save his mother Gurbash, subpostmistress at Greenock's Belville Street Post Office, from prosecution. His conviction was quashed last August. Shockingly, staff at the Post Office and Fujitsu knew there were problems with Horizon but, the report said, they 'maintained the fiction' in court that it could not make mistakes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Scotsman
09-07-2025
- Scotsman
Why public needs to stay angry over Post Office Horizon IT scandal
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When ITV's Mr Bates vs the Post Office hit our screens, it caused a public outcry over the fate of innocent sub-postmasters whose lives were ruined by false accusations of fraud and similar offences. The Post Office Horizon IT scandal had been covered by the media for years, but it took the humanising force of a drama to give the issue the prominence it deserved and finally begin to get justice for all those who were wronged. However, even though the programme was only broadcast last year, it feels like the scandal is fading from public consciousness, as people assume we know the worst and that the victims are being properly compensated. The first volume of a public inquiry's report into what happened shows why our attention must not wane. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Inquiry chair Wyn Williams found at least 13 people, including six former sub-postmasters, had taken their own lives and 59 had contemplated suicide, while others had self-harmed, turned to alcohol, or endured abuse from local people who thought they were guilty. It was, he said, impossible to tell how many people had suffered but he pointed to the 10,000 or so eligible claimants in compensation schemes. The Post Office Horizon IT scandal is the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history, affecting thousands of people (Picture: Dan Kitwood) | Getty Images Fiction of infallible accounting system The problems happened because faults with Fujitsu's Horizon IT system used by the Post Office wrongly suggested there were inexplicable shortfalls in the accounts. This led some people to use their life-savings to pay back 'illusory' losses, while others were sent to prison. Ravinder Naga even pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit – 'stealing' £35,000 – to save his mother Gurbash, subpostmistress at Greenock's Belville Street Post Office, from prosecution. His conviction was quashed last August. Shockingly, staff at the Post Office and Fujitsu knew there were problems with Horizon but, the report said, they 'maintained the fiction' in court that it could not make mistakes. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
