08 November 2011
Posted in
Radio
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain has added its voice to growing calls for a rethink of the BBC’s proposed near-abandonment of Birmingham in favour of Bristol, Cardiff and Salford.
The Guild welcomed a House of Commons motion tabled by Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, and sponsored by seven other West Midlands MPs. The motion protests against BBC plans to move much of its work away from the West Midlands. The Guild and its West Midlands Branch added their support to a campaign by the actors’ union Equity for the BBC to reconsider its plans to move all BBC factual and most network radio programming out of the region.
Writers’ Guild President David Edgar, a member of the Guild’s West Midlands Branch who has written several radio plays produced at the BBC's Birmingham Mailbox studios, commented:
'If the BBC's plans go ahead, a proud tradition of drama production in the West Midlands will be narrowed down to The Archers on radio and Doctors on television. The BBC lost its last one-off drama producer earlier this year, on top of the axing of the Asian soap Silver Street. Many Birmingham writers – along with producers, technicians and actors – will no longer be able to work in their region, and one of the best radio drama studios in the country will lie idle for most days of the year. The opportunity to write for the BBC in Birmingham has made an important and irreplacable contribution to what has hitherto been a lively and growing writerly community in the region. The BBC should think again.'
