A SCOTTISH director has alleged the BBC's director general told him he is “wasting his time” in calling for an urgent change in the broadcaster's attitude towards Scottish talent.
Peter Strachan, who sits on the board of trade body Directors UK, claimed that the BBC’s director general Tim Davie has failed to address concerns that London-based companies are depriving Scots of opportunities.
The veteran director said that in a conversation following Davie’s appearance at a Holyrood Culture Committee on Thursday, the BBC boss said he was “wasting” his time as Strachan was trying to speak to him about the urgent change needed at the broadcaster.
Strachan told The National that Davie had revealed an “arrogance” towards his and the Scottish industry's concerns.
The BBC did not deny that the exchange had taken place, with a spokesperson saying Davie had been reflecting the same position he took in the Holyrood evidence session.
Strachan has called for a meeting with the director general to discuss the concerns further, along with BBC Scotland’s director Hayley Valentine.
The Bafta-nominated director hit the headlines earlier in January with his analysis which claimed the BBC is failing to comply with Ofcom’s regulations for The Traitors by classing it as a Scottish show when an alleged 81% of its production team is based in England, a claim the BBC said it refutes.
Strachan (below) claimed that Davie told him that the issues he had raised were "Scottish concerns", to which the director replied: "It is a UK question because the decisions that are being made about Scotland are happening in London as well as Glasgow."
In a statement released to The National, Strachan said he approached the BBC’s director general after the committee on Thursday to introduce himself to him and Valentine.
The statement read: “The DG [director general] told me 'You are wasting your time'.
“In that moment he revealed their arrogant disregard not just for our concerns, but for Scotland.
"That was when I reminded him we’re talking about people’s careers and livelihoods. We will not be dismissed so easily.
“The DG also claimed this is a Scottish matter. I replied that people need to hear him address the issues that I and others have raised and that it is a UK matter.
“The decisions that are having such an adverse impact on us are being made in London.”
Strachan’s statement ended with him saying he has requested meetings with both Davie and Valentine to discuss his campaign for better opportunities for Scotland’s screen talent at BBC Scotland.
At the committee on Thursday, Davie told MSPs he wanted the number of Scots involved in Scottish programmes at BBC Scotland to improve, along with the overall investment into the country.
Davie said: “I also want to see us build a sustainable product. We're all trying to do the same thing, but honestly, we need to look at this in the round in terms of what we're building as a functioning ecosystem.”
Strachan told The National he welcomed Davie's (below) commitment to increase the level of off-screen talent based in Scotland working on BBC productions.
He said: “I hold them to the word that they want to engage with everybody in Scotland to look at ways about how to achieve that goal of getting more people based in Scotland working on big shows like The Traitors.
“Because at the moment we're not in a very good place, the figures are embarrassingly low for the BBC.”
Strachan added: “They're still not recognising that the number of people working on this successive series of The Traitors has gone down over time, and they were still pushing that line, and I'm afraid the data suggests the contrary.”
When asked about Strachan’s research at the committee on Thursday by the Scottish Labour MSP Neil Bibby, Valentine said that The Traitors is a “specialist genre” and that there was not a “huge amount of experience in that genre in Scotland”.
She added that the number of roles open to Scottish talent for the third series of the programme had “progressed” and that the BBC is heading in a direction to improve the number of opportunities available for those in the industry in Scotland.
However, Strachan refuted that claim as he said: “Contrary to what they said today it's not moving in a positive direction. They can't claim that.”
A spokesperson for BBC Scotland said: “During the parliamentary evidence session, the director general made abundantly clear the BBC’s support for the creative industries in Scotland, his goals for out-of-London production in the future and the commitment to not only reach the Ofcom regulatory target but to exceed it.
“The conversation with Mr Strachan fully reflected these points.”
