Sherwood writer James Graham has revealed he fought to make the BBC drama available in weekly episodes rather than all at once on the iPlayer streaming platform.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival on Wednesday, where Graham was delivering the annual Mactaggart Lecture, he revealed that the BBC's chief content officer Charlotte Moore had included him in the conversation about how to make the series available to viewers.
“There was certainly a discussion about whether the series should be available in full on iPlayer, rather than weekly,” he explained. “I’m not against audiences having a choice. It’s good for some shows to watch series in chunks. But I also appreciate those TV experiences that extend beyond that, that require us to wait, so that real conversations about the work can be generated in real life. Those infamous morning-after-night conversations.”
“I really felt that not only did the twists and turns in ‘Sherwood’ have to be something to protect, by drawing them out, so that a large portion of the audience would follow them almost at the same time. But also because of the social and political themes that were deliberately structured to unfold at certain moments.”
In recent years, the annual Mactaggart Lecture in Edinburgh has become known as a campaigning platform, and Graham continued this tradition by speaking primarily about class, and in particular about how working-class people are underrepresented. He cited a study that found that only 8% of television workers were from a working-class background, despite them making up 49% of the population. He also pointed out that working-class people were the biggest consumers of television.
Graham called on the industry and the new Labour government to improve the situation, saying what was needed was “a proper industry-wide standard and plan” including monitoring class diversity in productions and awards.
He also said the new government should “allow culture to play an active role in this promised ‘national renewal’ – and not just keep it at arm’s length in its silo on the fringes of policy-making, as is often the case.”
Graham also said the industry as a whole needed a “joined-up approach” and that he “welcomes the resources and expertise that exist in the TV and film industry to help get the funding to build something, and keep it running – as a statement of intent towards change, as much as a really valuable resource.”
As a first step towards this change, the Edinburgh Television Festival's charitable arm, the Television Foundation, has unveiled a new initiative called Impact Unit which aims to make the industry more inclusive.
Gemma Bradshaw from the Television Foundation will lead the Impact Unit, and among the initiatives she will deliver will be setting up a cross-sector working group, delivering the festival’s social mobility grant, and contributing to the development of metrics and monitoring.
