SHOULD LENNY HENRY’S CALL FOR ‘SYSTEMIC CHANGE’ INCLUDE SCRAPPING TV’S TOXIC INTERN CULTURE?
Veteran comic Lenny Henry has repeated demands for Britain’s TV channels and production companies to do more to open up the industry to talented young people from all social and ethnic backgrounds. But shouldn’t he have mentioned TV internships? After all, long periods of unpaid (or very low-paid) work are excluding all but those whose parents can support them financially.
Although many of the big channels – including the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, ITV and Channel 5 – have made attempts to improve the situation in recent months, Henry insisted that progress was too slow and on too small a scale.
He also appeared to question the impact of programmes aimed specifically at disadvantaged candidates, saying that “systemic change” was needed, including a challenge to the “whole economic model of television”. Henry’s concerns echo those of other working-class TV actors, including David Morrissey (who has slammed TV’s ‘intern culture’) and Julie Walters, who said “People like me wouldn’t get a chance today.”
Many of Graduate Fog’s readers have reported enormous difficulties when trying get a paid TV job, with one even telling us he went bankrupt attempting to build a career in broadcasting.
Lenny Henry demanded a ‘sea change’ in the TV industry’s attitude to diversity (Picture: Johan Persson via Wikimedia Commons)
From reading your stories, it seems that there are many reasons why the industry has become so exclusive (and excluding). One is the need for hopefuls to complete long TV internships before their applications for the small number of junior paid positions that exist will even be considered. As these internships are often unpaid (or very low paid) those whose parents can supplement their income are more likely to survive this period than those whose parents can’t, especially if they are based in an expensive city like London.
Another is that internships and paid roles are often not recruited for fairly, and that those with contacts (particularly family members or close friends who already work in the industry) have a massive advantage over those without (although we note that it is still difficult even for them to turn experience into paid work). Unpaid ‘trial shifts’ have also become the norm in an industry that has realised there is an over-supply of media graduates so desperate for experience that they will work for free.
So, today we’re asking Graduate Fog’s readers: Why do YOU think that TV is still so white and middle class? Are the industry’s recruitment processes – including TV internships – to blame? Or is it the case that TV bosses simply keep hiring more people like themselves? If you’ve tried to break into TV, what has your experience been – and what can the industry do to make access fairer to talented young people from all social and ethnic backgrounds? Is it possible to get a TV job if you’re not from a wealthy background? We’d love to hear your views and stories, so please share them below!
Strictly speaking it isn’t “internships” which is the issue, it is short periods of unpaid work experience that is the problem. And of course straightforward unpaid work (TV and Film folk don’t bother dressing up some of this stuff with fancy names).
Unpaid work is a habit the TV industry cannot break. It props up the budget of many productions and is excused as some kind of “right of passage” for young people.
It is of course nonsense. And divisive. And utterly repugnant to all right thinking people.
Sadly there don’t seem to be enough of those amongst TV bosses.
To be honest, if positive discrimination were not deployed, some amateur ham in the guise of Lenny Henry would never have been given a break…but, he was, and he was given an opportunity which should have been given to more qualified and competent of his peers.
And the issue of Work Experience is only of significance because some candidates are their own worst enemy…if some were not prepared to indulge some disreputable employers, who expected to recruit staff without going to the burden of fulfilling their obligations, then they would continue to rely on unpaid staff to fulfill their recruitment needs.
some amateur ham in the guise of Lenny Henry would never have been given a break…but, he was, and he was given an opportunity which should have been given to more qualified and competent of his peers.
He was given his first break and agent aged 17 – what qualifications do you expect him to have at that age? A diploma in comedy?
What an extraordinary statement Eowyn Rohan. Lenny Henry emerged as a comedian in the 1970s, a time when racism was in its pomp and positive discrimination hadn’t even been considered, let alone practised.
That “amateur ham” to which you refer was awarded a knighthood for, inter alia, his services to drama and has been amongst the top comedic acts for over 40 years. Difficult to see how many of his peers would have been more “qualified and competent”.