‘Dear England’ Creator James Graham Says New, Original Shows Jeopardized By TV’s Desire For “Tried & Tested IP” – Edinburgh MacTaggart

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James Graham, the creator of Sherwood, Dear England and Brexit: The Uncivil War, has urged the creation of “new universes” and greater risk taking in place of TV’s gatekeepers “falling back on tried and tested IP.” Delivering this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart lecture, the prolific British scribe argued passionately for greater working class representation in the TV industry, along with criticizing commissioners’ ongoing temptation to opt for “source material, adaptations and expanded universes.” Graham used the annual Edinburgh platform to plead for “new universes, which means – taking risks.” He added: “New stories have to be at the heart of commissioning – scripted, non-scripted, factual, fictional … even in the most difficult climate, where the temptation, and we’re witnessing it, is to fall back on tried and tested IP.” The industry should see “risk” as a long-term “vital” investment in the future health of the sector, Graham said, coming at a festival that has seen many British TV doyens urge greater risk-taking.

He said it is the public broadcasters – who make programming decisions “beyond commercial pressures,” who need to lead the charge, although he acknowledged streaming services have been “inventive” and “authored,” which the industry has benefitted from. “But if a case is to be made – and it has to be made – in this modern, multi-platform environment, for the BBC, alongside ITV and Channel 4, Channel 5… then surely it is that,” he added. “Speak to American screenwriters or programme-makers, and they are bewildered at our complacency over our PSBs.

They wish they had a BBC.” The situation has been stymied by the last couple of years representing a “climate of extremes” in the TV industry,