BBC NEWS have reported on the row over the broadcaster's flagship reality TV show The Traitors not investing in Scottish off-screen talent – a claim the broadcaster has previously denied.
After the finale of the TV show on Friday, the broadcaster has now reported on the row which hit the headlines throughout January on the broadcaster being accused of “not commissioning fairly”.
Directors UK board member Peter Strachan claimed in his viral LinkedIn post that the money spent on The Traitors was not “translating into a fair level of job opportunity across the UK” and claimed that Studio Lambert, the London-based firm behind the show, had 81% of its production team for The Traitors based in London.
The BBC have previously denied Strachan’s claims, with a spokesperson telling the National that the show is “clearly made in the Scottish Highlands” and that the show qualifies as a Scotland production as per Ofcom's regional production definition.
BBC News is editorially independent of the BBC as a whole.
Ofcom sets criteria for production companies which are supposed to encourage firms to make more programmes, spend more money and employ greater numbers of staff outside of London.
The Traitors counts towards the 8% of hours and expenditure that the BBC network is required to make and spend in Scotland.
Strachan, who has described himself as a champion of the BBC, has stressed the need for better representation in the country’s off-screen industry, said that just 4% of The Traitor’s “above the line roles” were filled by staff based in Scotland.
On Monday the BBC wrote a news article titled: "Why do so few Scottish-based people work on The Traitors?"
The broadcaster reported on Strachan’s previous claims, and spoke to two Scottish-based people who have worked on different series of the show.
The pair stressed that they were worried that speaking publicly would affect future job opportunities, so remained anonymous.
They both questioned why more Scottish-based people were not hired, as one said: “As a Scottish freelancer in TV it was so frustrating … especially considering how much we are struggling for work up here.”
Another commented: “I quickly learned that many of my peers had never spent much time in Scotland outside of working on the show.”
Strachan (below) said that removing the Glasgow-based executive producer (BBC), the [percentage] of above the line roles on the show would be zero.
He added at the time: “Only 6.52% of below the line roles are Scotland based. With the vast majority based in London, a total of just 6.22% of the big production team are based in Scotland. Just 22.22% of the specialist roles and facilities are based in Scotland.”
Strachan, who sits on the board of trade body Directors UK, has been campaigning for better opportunities for Scottish off-screen talent.
Stephen Lambert, chief executive of Studio Lambert, told the BBC that the Scottish television community is “large and talented”.
However, he added: “A very different set of specialised skills and experience are required to make reality shows on the scale of The Traitors.
“We are employing and training talented people based in Scotland to work on The Traitors.
“But one of the reasons why the show is so popular and acclaimed is because we employ the most experienced reality show production talent in the UK.”
Studio Lambert did not respond to the BBC when it asked the firm to confirm what percentage of people working on each series of The Traitors are based in Scotland.
When asked about Strachan’s claims, a spokesperson for the BBC said: “As per Ofcom's regional production definition, The Traitors qualifies as a Scotland production and is clearly made in the Scottish Highlands, as viewers will know.”
