Wolf Hall director says streaming levy could save UK TV industry – but government is "running scared" of Trump

I am the son of immigrants. My mother, who died just a few weeks ago at the wonderful age of 94, was a survivor of the Kindertransport. And on my father’s side, I come from a family that fled to Britain as a result of the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century. I only mention this because it might give an indication of why I have tried to make the kind of programmes I’ve made over the last 45 years.

I am only here, I only exist because of the hospitality of this country, hospitality that was extended at a time when immigration wasn’t such a dirty word, and when people thought that immigrants – and maybe even the children of immigrants, such as myself – could make a useful contribution to society, rather than polluting that society by their presence.

So, I owe this country a lot – a debt of honour, if you like – which has made me think hard about my responsibilities as a citizen. I’ve never really seen myself as an entertainer. Television is a powerful medium and I’ve always felt that we should use that power responsibly. I suppose I think it’s an aspect of free speech in a democracy, the ability of programme-makers to broadcast not just government propaganda, as is the case in so many other countries in the world, but to speak truth to power, even if occasionally that truth isn’t particularly welcome.

The sad thing is that, with the world in a parlous state – people ferociously divided, nations perhaps even on the brink of a Third World War – at the very time when we need this kind of challenging programming most, it’s under threat as never before. Why is that?

It’s mainly because the public service broadcasters – primarily the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 – who have a legal obligation to make these kinds of programmes, can no longer afford to make them. For instance, the final series of Wolf Hall, broadcast last year, only got made because a number of people involved in the production, including the executive producer Sir Colin Callender, gave back most of the money to which they were contractually entitled.

Why can’t the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV make these kinds of dramas any more? Because the streamers have priced them out of their own market. The streamers make some fantastic shows. I watch their output most nights and I enjoy it, but they have deep pockets and they’ve spent their money liberally. Prices have been driven up so that inflation within our industry, as every TV professional knows, is far greater than inflation in the wider country (by a factor of three or four), and the licence fee and other forms of funding for the public service broadcasters have not gone up in parallel.

So, the British public service broadcasters can no longer afford to make my sort of dramas: Warriors, The Promise, The State, The Undeclared War, The Government Inspector and Wolf Hall. And the producers know that, so they’re not developing them. The programmes that do get made are those produced by the streamers – for budgets we can only dream of.

But these are programmes that, by definition, have to play internationally, which is code for appealing to an American audience. Some shows that we might think are quite important to make here in the UK don’t play in America. Hillsborough, Three Girls, Mr Bates vs the Post Office wouldn’t work for a US audience – they’re too local, too British. Wolf Hall wouldn’t be commissioned by any of the streamers. We know, we tried.

It’s exactly this kind of programming that is disappearing. It’s not under threat. It’s disappearing right now. Does that matter? Yes, I think it does. It’s part of the service we owe to our audience – to hold a mirror up to society. Our own, British society.

The good news is there is a very straightforward solution. In fact, it’s a solution that’s already been adopted in 17 other countries in Europe. The British Government should take a five per cent levy of UK subscription revenue from each of the streamers that broadcast here and put it into a fund that can go towards the production costs of public service broadcasters. And make no mistake, the streamers could also access this fund, as long as the programmes they wish to make are co-productions with one of our local public service broadcasters.

Except we’re not going to do this. Why? Because we’re running scared of Donald Trump and his tariffs. The Government is so supine and terrified that it’s not prepared to run the risk of upsetting Trump and the delicate trading relationship that they’ve fought so hard – and grovelled so intensely – to achieve.

But all is not lost yet. This Government is terrified of swings in public support and can be pressurised. It just needs a few more people to stand up and be counted.

If you care about public service broadcasting, if you care about the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, I would beg you – get out there and campaign for the Government to stand up to the bully in the White House, and protect the 100-year tradition of public service broadcasting in this country, of which we are rightly proud, before it is lost for ever.

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.