THE Celebrity Traitors finale last week might have attracted 11 million viewers, but Scotland’s screen talent is still largely being denied the opportunity to contribute to the success of a show that’s a BBC Network Scottish commission.
Last month, Hayley Valentine, director of BBC Scotland, claimed: “There are something like 60 Scots working on that show now”. Sounds like good news. But investigating the production credits of The Celebrity Traitors reveals just 27, of a production team 197-strong, are based in Scotland.
More than 76% of the production team – 83% of those in senior roles – are based in London. Just over 14% overall in Scotland.
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On the first three series, an average of just 6% of the production teams were based here. So, on first inspection, the additional Scottish hires on The Celebrity Traitors – an increase of just over 8% in Scotland-based representation – appears to be an improvement. But here’s the rub, more than half of this increase is accounted for just by runners, the lowest rank in the production hierarchy.
One of their main responsibilities will have been driving cast and crew, supplies and sundries, to and from the set. The driving element was even in the job advert. On series three of The Traitors, 16 of 18 runners were brought up from south of the Border, 13 from London. It seems driving on Highland roads is one skill missing from their CVs. Word is they’ve been struggling to cope.
It turns out 13 of the 27 Scotland-based freelancers hired to work on The Celebrity Traitors are in what would be considered entry-level or very junior roles, ie: researcher, camera assistant etc. Also, some of the positions filled by Scotland-based talent weren’t in fact jobs; rather they were categorised as trainees, despite their considerable relevant skills and experience.
Even more revealing is that in many cases, the London HQ-ed production company, Studio Lambert, didn’t pay their wages from the production budget, the money that the BBC gives it to make the show. It transpires we did, the taxpayers.
To date, on series two and three, our Scottish Government-funded national screen agency has provided “funding of circa £155k to Studio Lambert to support the recruitment and training of 21 roles from within Scotland, including mission producer, edit producer, editor, casting, production coordination, and others on Traitors”.
The allocation of this money is one way Screen Scotland is fulfilling its remit to create film and TV jobs for our production talent.
But it doesn’t seem right that we are having to pay extra for the privilege of working on a Scottish show, and sorry for repeating myself here, made with licence fee money earmarked to meet the BBC’s 8% spending commitment to Scotland.
While I am glad a little more Scottish talent is now working on the show, this injection of additional pubic money raises serious doubt over the BBC and Studio Lambert’s claims to be supporting Scotland’s production community. It also begs the question: would Studio Lambert have hired these Scots if the company hadn’t received the Screen Scotland money?
It’s good to see this funding has been used to support some more senior roles for Scottish talent. But the production company still has much to answer on this too. The total number of “senior” producers working on The Celebrity Traitors doubled from five on series three to 10. At the same time, the number of Scotland-based “senior” producers went from zero to one. However, this increase is made up of someone who is already staff at Studio Lambert, one of just two names listed on its website as being based at its Glasgow office, so that position can’t be said to be adding any new talent to the mix.
Also, given their job titles, neither of these individuals have executive or autonomous creative and business decision-making authority. A substantive base securing regional production qualification status? It would appear not. The bottom line is both Studio Lambert and the BBC ought to be doing far better.
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Launching into a grilling of Valentine at the Edinburgh TV Festival this summer, Kirsty Wark said: “The idea that we don’t have people in Scotland that can make a reality show until The Traitors came along is actually quite extraordinary”. She’s absolutely right, of course, we have the requisite talent, at all levels.
Valentine replied, dropping a veiled threat that the series could be filmed elsewhere, that “it’s a particular format where there probably wasn’t that expertise in Scotland when they started”.
Comparing Scottish TV CVs with London equivalents shows this to be an untenable argument. What we don’t have is an appropriate level of access to opportunity, something that was extended to the new director of Scotland herself.
Valentine’s background is in news and current affairs. There are no quiz, chat, game or reality shows on her CV. No dramas or access-based observational documentaries. No factual entertainment programmes. Yet she now oversees the production of all these genres and more. Her skills and experience were deemed transferable. The courtesy isn’t being extended, however, to other Scots living here and working in television. We remain largely unseen talent.
It’s possible that more Scots worked on series four of The Traitors, filmed immediately following the celebrity version, taking the number up to 60.
Yet, neither the BBC nor Studio Lambert have put forward any additional data to support their argument that The Traitors is a good deal for Scotland’s screen talent. All we’ve had is PR puff.
You have to wonder if Valentine is being either disingenuous or perhaps misinformed by Studio Lambert, but
it’s hard to see how an increase of just 8%, with most working at the bottom rungs of the ladder, represents a meaningful commitment.
The Traitors might be filmed in the Highlands, but it’s a stretch for Valentine to claim “it’s clearly Scottish”. The show’s most cunning suspects aren’t the players of the game; rather it’s the people behind the mask ultimately responsible for what’s a disappointing prize for Scotland’s screen talent.
I suspect we all know who the traitors and the faithfuls are in this scenario.
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