‘Black Doves’ Producer Jane Featherstone Says BBC Has “Multiple Shows They Can’t Fund”
The BBC has a number of scripted shows on its slate that it “can’t fund,” according to UK super-producer Jane Featherstone.
Featherstone, who runs Black Doves producer Sister and has made multiple BBC shows down the years along with big Netflix hits, made the claim during the UK parliamentary inquiry into high-end TV and film.
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“The BBC can answer for this but I am aware they have multiple shows which through no fault of their own they can’t fund,” she told the Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC). “Which makes it very difficult to see further down the line because those shows take two to three years to come to screen.”
Anecdotally, Deadline has heard over the past few months of UK shows getting stuck in what is often termed ‘soft greenlight’ stage, when a program is given the green light but producers are told they still need to find the majority of funding.
Featherstone spoke to this issue and pointed to an example of a show Sister is making for the BBC written by Utopia scribe Dennis Kelly.
“The BBC give us the greenlight and now we go, ‘How are we going to fund it?’, because a greenlight is 30% of the budget, which is traditionally now what a [Public Service Broadcaster] can only afford to put in,” she said. “Each case is different but it leaves us with gap of say 60% of the budget. We are now [in the UK] getting closer to that indie film model at the lower cost end.”
Featherstone said the BBC and other Public Service Broadcasters like Channel 4 are having to “funnel more money” into higher-cost content, which doesn’t necessarily reflect British values. “The market itself won’t take care of British content and that is the bit we need to look at, that is the bit at risk,” she said.
Featherstone called the BBC a “jewel.” “With the BBC in particular it’s important to remember the narrative around them,” she added. “How much work that they do behind the scenes fuels our pipeline. I know there are times when the BBC is not always the most popular place but I do believe we have to change the narrative around it and make sure it can be supported.”
A BBC spokeswoman said Featherstone’s comments “serve as a timely reminder of the vital role the BBC and the public service broadcasters play in this fragile ecology.” “While the competition of a global market is healthy, the BBC bangs the drum for British creativity and culturally relevant content in a way that the global streamers simply can’t,” she added. We remain the biggest investor in UK producers, talent and skills and fuel our precious independent production sector. Producers hold onto their rights and their IP and the value from our spend is retained in the UK, not across the Atlantic. We are committed to sustaining the growth of this world-class UK creative industry.”
“Feeling less inclined to take risks”
Featherstone also noted it is becoming harder to sell British content abroad, pointing to the example of ITV hit Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which “didn’t sell to many countries at all.”
In terms of her own company Sister, Featherstone said she “doesn’t feel as confident about the sustainability of our business model” when compared with the post-Covid boom era 18 months ago. Deadline revealed last year that the indie had doubled turnover but was still failing to turn a profit. It has since closed its U.S. office and Cindy Holland has exited.
“I would like to think we’re very risk friendly as a company but I have to be honest in the last 18 months I have felt less inclined to take those risks because I don’t feel as confident about the sustainability of our business model,” she said. “I now feel less safe than I did about investing long term for the future.”
She said she has higher hopes for this year and predicted the market will equalize somewhat between pubcasters and streamers, while calling for help with an improved tax credit, backing up Doctor Who producer Jane Tranter. Tranter previously urged the UK government to update high-end TV tax credits in line with the “game-changing” British indie film relief.
Featherstone was speaking to the CMS’ high-end TV and film inquiry. A number of UK TV doyens contributed to the same inquiry last year including Gurinder Chadha, Tranter and Slow Horses director James Hawes. It was shelved for a while during the general election period but the newly-assembled CMS Committee decided to pick it back up again.
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