People in Liverpool need to have a ‘big bag of cocaine in them’ if the characters want to appear on a BBC show, a leading producer has said.
Jimmy Mulville, who co-founded the production company, Hat Trick which is behind Channel 4‘s smash hit Derry Girls, has accused executives at the broadcaster of perpetuating stereotypes about regions in the UK.
Mr Mulville based the comments off his own experience with trying to pitch a ‘rom-com between two middle-aged people in Liverpool’ but has had little interest.
‘I think the mistake is that it hasn’t got a bag of cocaine in it,’ Mr Mulville mused, before quipping that he needs to ‘phone the writer to say, “Stick a bag of cocaine in it on page three”.’
‘Then the BBC will lap it up because they think, “Liverpool coke dealers – let’s do it”, he added.
Liverpool born Mr Mulville’s comments had been in reference to the BBC’s This City is Ours, The Cage and The Responder, but clarified that they were all separately ‘really good’.
Mr Mulville, who also helped create Trigger Point on ITV and Have I Got News for You for the BBC, said BBC commissioners needed to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ about the limitations they enforce.
This City is Ours (pictured) is a drama set in Liverpool, following a crime boss who wants to retire after one last major drug deal
The Cage (pictured) is a thriller following two casino workers in Liverpool who soon realise they have both planned to steal from the same safe
Liverpool born Mr Mulville’s comments had been in reference to the BBC’s The Responder (pictured), The Cage and This City is Ours, but clarified that they were all separately ‘really good’
Mr Mulville’s show, Derry Girls, a comedy about a group of teenagers growing up in Londonderry in the 1990s during the Troubles, was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of young girls.
Producer Peter Fincham, Mr Mulville’s co-host on their entertainment podcast said ‘you don’t see about happy law-abiding people…in Liverpool who are law-abiding smiley citizens like most people are’.
In January, a report suggested the BBC still leans towards the ‘middle class’ and is too ‘London-centric’.
In a damning independent review of portrayal and representation in BBC content, commissioned by its own board, the corporation was urged to improve the way it connects with working-class audiences and those based outside the capital and the south of England.
It found that perceptions of the Beeb are often lower among those demographics who are also less likely to be satisfied with how they are represented and portrayed.
The review, by former Bafta chairwoman Anne Morrison, and independent media consultant Chris Banatvala, said that power in the organisation is still too concentrated in London and recommended more key decision makers should be located outside the capital.
Jimmy Mulville, who helped produce Derry Girls, has accused executives at the BBC of perpetuating stereotypes about regions in the UK
Derry Girls (pictured) was praised for offering a new perspective on the period of the IRA and loyalist ceasefires through the eyes of a group of young girls.
The BBC said in response to Mr Mulville’s comments: ‘BBC Drama proudly commissions a broader range of drama than anyone else in the UK and the crime genre is a hugely popular part of our offer to audiences.
‘We back creatives to tell the stories they want to tell, and these dramas were written by the award-winning Tony Schumacher and Stephen Butchard, who both hail from Liverpool where these series were filmed and set.’
It then highlighted to a variety of shows they commission, including The Other Bennet Sister, Call the Midwife, Half Man, Dear England, Adrian Mole and Riot Women.
It added that crime dramas were commissioned across the UK, like Silent Witness (Birmingham), Counsels (Glasgow), Blue Lights (Belfast) and Beyond Paradise (Cornwall and Devon).
