BBC TV boss Charlotte Moore has said she will not “censor” respected writers who want to make shows about controversial subjects such as Jimmy Savile and the Grenfell disaster.
In a wide-ranging briefing with the media press, Moore also addressed the Gary Lineker and Richard Sharp controversies, future of Top Gear, the streamers and the closure of CBBC and BBC Four on linear.
The BBC’s upcoming TV dramas on serial abuser Jimmy Savile and the Grenfell fire – which killed 72 people in 2017 – have come in for much criticism and the latter has spawned a petition to have it cancelled that has so far been signed by nearly 60,000 people.
But Moore said the BBC “has a strong track record” in factual drama about controversial subjects and opined that “it would not be right for me to censor ideas from very respected writers who have written about similar subjects in the past.” Titled The Reckoning, the Savile drama is being written by Philomena’s Jeff Pope, while Wolf Hall scribe Peter Kosminsky is behind Grenfell [working title].
Read more on deadline.com