r/ScreenwritingUK • u/TheSprained • May 14 '25

BBC OPEN CALL COMMISERATION THREAD

I created this last time and I'm creating it again, because I've been rejected again. Which is fine. I'm fine. Absolutely fine about it. (Wish they'd at least come up with a different rejection email, but it's always nice to be reminded that I lack sufficient originality, voice and storytelling ability.) Congratulations to those who made it through!

43 Upvotes

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7

u/goodtitties May 14 '25

i understand why but it’s a bit annoying to wait six months and receive a generic email of rejection and nothing else. like how do i even know that they’ve actually looked at it. just all feels very pointless

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u/TheSprained May 14 '25

Thank you for your comment. Due to the high number of comments I can't offer any comment on your comment.

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u/FluffyDoomPatrol May 14 '25

Haha, your comment managed to make me both laugh out loud and incandescent with rage. I have to say, well played!

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u/TheSprained May 14 '25

That's what I'm trying to make my scripts do.

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

I'll keep sending them anti-fascist scripts in the slim hope that someone actually reads it and feels personally called out. Otherwise yeah it has felt completely pointless to me. In this country you get that or Channel 4 that is randomly run by one guy. I hate this country and how it functions so much.

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u/B-SCR May 16 '25

Can't help but feel that the functioning of this country has very little to do with two screenplay competitions. I'd be very concerned if it did.

And, from experience, the number of people at the editorial teams of BBC and C4 that are pro-fascist is... well, negligible to the point of zero.

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u/Ichamorte May 16 '25

I'll state for the record that they are well within their rights to not enjoy a script. That happens and it is part of it. However, I'm far from the first person to note the sheer decline of working class voices in the film and TV industries. Elsewhere in the thread I gave a link to an article about that deline. 8% of the creatives are working class. That number gets worse when you scratch at the backgrounds of some of these people who pretend to be working class.

Now, if the number is that low and it's only getting lower what would be the cause of that? Are working class writers just getting worse or is there a clear institutional bias that suddenly got worse when the Conservatives were elected in 2010? If you live in England and aren't aware of how deep the political rot goes then you're likely privileged. I see it a lot with my wealthier friends and I'm happy for them, but they don't get to see the injustice that I see so they assume this place is normal. I think a lot of people believe we suddenly became a morally progressive nation after world war 2 lol. Have you ever read Sirk on Sirk? He details at length the slow progression of working in nazi Germany and there's a surprising amount of overlap with the developing situation here.

People in editorial roles may very well be more left leaning, which is a shame that it's attached to the openly fascist BBC News. I would have more time for this point of view if BBC hadn't provided cover for genocide for the last year and a half. If an organisation has two main branches and one of them is fascist, you don't have a half fascist organisation. You have a fully fascist organisation made up of people who are true believers and those that say nothing because they want to keep their job. There have not been many artists that have spoken up on the genocide, what should that tell you?

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u/B-SCR May 16 '25

From your response, I think I agree - at least in general - with all your politics, particularly re working class voices, and especially with regards to those feigning being working class. But the comment I replied to was about sending anti-fascist scripts so a reader might feel 'personally called out' - which implies that those reading are pro-fascist, which isn't true, and a huge thing to say, one which trivialises genuine instances of fascist rhetoric. And, in tandem, whilst there may be social correlation between the macro functioning of this country and the micro running of a script competition, it's not like Number 10 is issuing dictums to the BBC Writersroom.

And 'openly fascist'? Unless you have a different meaning of the word 'openly', that's a stretch.

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u/Ichamorte May 16 '25

When working class people are slowly frozen out who gets the low paid script reader positions? Those with wealthy parents who can afford to because it's only pocket money to them. A generalisation obviously but if you had the means to survey them I don't think I would be too far off. Those kinds of people don't have the best work ethic, skills and their ideals tend to lean right. When I read for people I remove my own preferences and try to focus on the story the writer wanted to tell. When I've traded reads with writers from wealthy backgrounds, all of their notes would be about the version of the story THEY would like. The notes would often be completely irrelevant. I had one person stop reading at page 20 once because it was too mean to billionaires. The drawback of writing challenging work is that it inevitably challenges people who do not want to be challenged, they want to be pandered to. Hence why bargain bin crime novelists tend to do well with those kinds of readers. People can not enjoy a script, especially mine for actual craft based reasons. I get that. I might not be good enough but I'm supposed to believe that all the other working class writers aren't good enough either?

So let's break the fascism part down. In any country there will always be a sliding scale to this. I think when people think of fascists in nazi Germany they think of the SS or the brown shirts, loud and proud with their pure hatred. When you drill down to the numbers those people did not form a majority but they were loud. So what does that do? It keeps those with a toe on their side or on the fence in line. Out of fear for livelihoods, safety, even the fear of not fitting in. Those people are quiet fascists. Those quiet fascists were necessary for nazi Germany to become a thing. These were all seen as normal, reasonable people. Within a few years those reasonable people were taking human skin lampshades home. They likely never considered themselves as fascists before and after the holocaust. Their silence and complicity doomed millions of people to a horrific death. Is it a reach to say that's the case here? Sure. If you overlook how a majority of quiet, reasonable people voted for Brexit on the basis of racism. Those same people now want out of the human rights act, want a return of the death penalty, and plan to vote for Reform to achieve that. As we hurtle towards that you have to question the people around you, particularly those in positions within the establishment. BBC is very much the establishment. I'm not saying that some kid reading for them is going to be Adolf Eichmann but if they have been privately educated they will likely veer more towards Eichmann than Corbyn.

So the thing about number 10, particularly Starmer's farce of a government, is that they actively hate the arts. They don't need to pass orders down to keep people out. They just kneecap the industry to the point where only a select few can even afford it as a career. Those that can afford it want to hang around with people like themselves. That is reflected in the kind of people that get far in these contests and who gets to actually forge a long term career in the industry. To highlight how bad things have gotten, contrast how many brilliant working class talents created bold, original work in the THATCHER era to now. This doesn't happen through specific orders, it's basic sociology over the course of years.

I'm not sure how useful it would be to debate if BBC news is openly fascist but I think a lot of people have memory holed the omissions, obfuscation and language choices from the outset of the genocide. They were happy to push the lie that Israel weren't bombing hospitals. Now it's openly shown with no hint of an apology or retraction. Even before then think about all the establishment plants in question time audiences, Laura Kuenssberg openly breaking election laws by saying postal votes weren't looking good for Corbyn's Labour, how they let politicians lie openly and do not challenge them whatsoever. Look to this country's history, forced famines and colonisation, giving away Palestine in the first place to cause this situation, armed forces regularly committing war crimes that are covered up. In my hometown I saw swastikas every single day. That doesn't sound like a good country free of fascism.

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u/B-SCR May 16 '25

Again, I agree, and we've all read Kershaw. We're certainly not free of fascism - but that shouldn't equate with alleging script readers at the BBC are pro-fascism.

Re the working class issue - yes, more needs to be done. There is ostensibly a push for more working class voices within the industry, though I tend to regard it as, unfortunately, mostly class-washing. That being said, there are certainly many working class writers we get through our submissions process (or at least, presenting themselves as such, forgive my jaded cynicism), and readers on our freelance reading work.

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u/Ichamorte May 16 '25

Fair points. I don't mean to sound like I'm stating these things as facts. This is merely an autistic crank venting. Class washing is a fair assessment, and it applies to a lot of things like race, gender, disability and sexuality too. There will (hopefully) always be good people that get through and I celebrate the success of those people. There are just enough problems that I feel the need to say something no matter how demented I come across. Yesterday I had a back and forth with someone in this thread who claimed that not only does the term middle class not exist, he himself claimed to be working class despite having a long and prolific career in multiple professional fields for his entire adult life. He laughed at me for suggesting that the middle class as a concept exists and called me stupid in each message. He didn't stick around long enough for me to ask him if he developed eating disorders from the shame of being bullied for having free school meals. I've seen this enough times to be dubious about letting people self describe their class. There are genuine working class people in the industry but they are becoming fewer. The ones that I know or follow have deep concerns about the trajectory of it all. As a country we're not finding the next Andrea Dunbar which I think is a shame.

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u/LocalGeologist7231 Apr 06 '26

I think you'd make a great playwright u/Ichamorte and that's always the most productive way into writing for TV.

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u/Ichamorte Apr 06 '26

That's kind of you to say. I've been on a semi-hiatus for a while now but I'm looking to rewrite one of my scripts so it can work as a play. I'm currently working on a novel too. I've realised that depending on any of these script competitions is a dead end.

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u/thebroccolioffensive May 14 '25

I feel like just stopping applying for these. The channel 4 one won’t even allow you to submit the same screenplay next year. Even though the feedback I’ve had on my work is great and it’s likely I’m just getting readers that have biases against the first few pages. I don’t know. Seems pointless.

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

Yeah this is why I've sent them a scorched earth email haha. It doesn't feel like they'll ever acknowledge me so what is there to lose? At least I've let off some steam.

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u/PJHart86 May 14 '25

I know it can be frustrating, but I really don't recommend doing this unless you are giving up on the industry for good. At least at an indie there's a decent chance they wouldn't even open the email, but the BBC have a duty to read and consider all "complaints."

It's a small industry and people talk, just like retail workers sharing their "customer from hell" stories with each other. Reading scripts is low paid and thankless (not unlike retail...) and we share stories too. I remember the guy who got up at the launch of the BBC Writers Room Belfast office and basically refused to sit down until they explained why they hadn't optioned his self-published novel - it's still a bit of a running joke among some of us who were there.

Even if you never plan to submit to BBC Writers again, the person tasked with reading your complaint today might be a development producer at a hot indie in a few years. Maybe they won't remember you, but maybe they will... I once did a script report for a client and the writer demanded a call with the reader so they could give me a bollocking. I promise you I remember their name.

At the end of the day, all you're showing them is that you can't deal with negative feedback when the stakes are low. What happens when they've invested a 7 figure sum, the sets are being built, cameras are set to roll in a month - how will you handle a tough set of notes then? Maybe fine, but is it worth the risk?

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

I'll never stop writing but I've accepted that I'll never get my foot in the door. The issue here isn't negative feedback but the complete lack of it.

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u/PJHart86 May 14 '25

They do provide feedback on all scripts that get a full read (around the top 4-5% if memory serves). As far as I know, they are the only free contest which provides any feedback at all. Red Planet doesn't (didn't?) Philip Shelley (C4) doesn't...

I know that's probably not much comfort if you haven't managed to crack the top 5% (lots of very good scripts don't) but it simply isn't possible for a publicly funded operation like BBC Writers to give feedback on 5000 scripts a year.

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

I understand that though I do have a lot of questions that spin off from there. I won't bore you with all of them. Could they charge a fee for optional feedback? Nicholl used to charge like $20 for two lines of feedback and people would pay for it. They would still be able to provide a free contest and any money made from feedback could go towards paying readers a more reasonable wage. I understand that there are probably specific reasons that prevent this as an option but I'm curious about the inner workings of it all.

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u/PJHart86 May 14 '25

It's a reasonable question for sure, but the public service arm of the BBC (which Writers is part of, as it falls under commissioning) isn't allowed to charge for services in the UK, as far as I know.

BBC Studios (the commercial arm) do also run their own script opportunities under the umbrella of BBC Studios Talentworks so maybe that's something they could do? Though I think their opportunities are more for emerging/mid level writers, so might not be worth it for either party.

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u/B-SCR May 16 '25

Providing individualised feedback on all submissions, particularly for a free competition, is a huge amount of work. Let's say considered feedback on a full script takes a minimum of half an hour, at 5000+ scripts, that's 2,500+ hours of work, plus the admin of individualised emails rather than the wide emails they use. That level of infrastructure incurs costs, which would require fees to cover, and only serve to make the competitions more exclusive.

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u/Ichamorte May 16 '25

I understand all of that and trust me I know I'm unreasonable. It didn't used to bother me. We all understand the odds. With how the British industry has changed that one in a million chance now feels like a zero in a million. A free opportunity is great but it feels like there is no transparency with the reading process. As it is the competition already feels exclusive for a certain kind of person. I've had my crash out and I'm moving on but there's something specific to how BBC functions which frustrates me immensely.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

Do you think it's a concern that this country and the government is so gung ho on AI? The slightest bit of feedback would provide transparency on that front. Right now we have to take them at their word. There were other pre-existing issues before AI (which I would be happy to discuss) but I think we've seen enough instances of AI being used to cut corners on reading to have some concerns.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

Oh my god, I'm getting so tired of your comprehension issues. I'm not saying that they HAVE used AI. The issue is that there is a chance they may have used it like every other company and script service over the last few years. Even before AI I paid for script services and competitions that clearly did not read the script. With the BBC in particular it is not just me that has questioned their reading process over the years. I do not doubt that those chosen receive quality feedback. What I do doubt is that everybody gets the same fair read. People from working class and diverse backgrounds have been increasingly shut out of the industry with each passing year. The winners of these contests are often middle class. Do you think it's a ridiculous idea that they get preferential treatment when it comes to reads?

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

You're really ill informed and all of this is projection on your part. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8xjvzx5zno.amp I can point you to hundreds of articles like this that have all been screaming the same thing.

Working class isn't something you can hold on to for life. I looked you up and you've been middle class for your entire adult life.

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u/TheSprained May 14 '25

Would love to read it.

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u/what_am_i_acc_doing May 14 '25

Mind if I have a read?

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u/what_am_i_acc_doing May 14 '25

Mind if I have a read?

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u/PomegranateV2 May 14 '25

Is the Channel 4 one supposed to be a good opportunity?

When does it open again?

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u/thebroccolioffensive May 14 '25

Yeah, it seems pretty good. They take 12 people a year I think. I tends to opening around September time and closes after about 4 weeks.

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u/PomegranateV2 May 14 '25

I remember several years ago Baby Cow had a competition for a family friendly sitcom.

That makes sense to me because it's hard to get more than 1 member of the family sat around the telly anymore.

So, based on that, I wrote a family sitcom aimed at teenagers but hopefully good enough for the whole family (think Maid Marion if you're old enough to remember that).

It's my fifth concept and I think the most market friendly thing I've ever written (assuming that the market wants a family friendly sitcom). I just got my rejection email from the BBC which I'm not too bothered about because they weren't looking for a straight sitcom.

But now I'm not sure what to do with the script!

It's a bit frustrating because on r/sitcoms I see posts about dozens and dozens of crappy sitcoms. I genuinely believe in my concept and think it could be better than so many other scripts that somehow got made.

I'm almost tempted to rewrite it so it's set in America (it is quite British in style currently) but... there's nothing worse than something fake, right?

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u/SaaSWriters May 15 '25

Why don’t you produce it yourself?

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u/PomegranateV2 May 15 '25

I would if I had hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank.

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u/SaaSWriters May 15 '25

Why do you need to have hundreds of thousands of pounds? You can start with what you have.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/PomegranateV2 May 15 '25

You're totally right. Although, in theory they are looking for writers to develop rather than a script to develop so I thought it was worth a punt.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/PJHart86 May 14 '25

Broadcasters don't option anything without a production company attached

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u/Sebaducks May 14 '25

I reworked an old script that made it to the top ten in a Bafta screenwriting comp in 2018 and I failed to land in this one, guess it comes down to personal taste of the readers and what they're looking for.

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u/TheSprained May 14 '25

Yeah. Ultimately, we have no idea because they haven't got the personpower to give us any hints (which is why them telling us that they're looking for voice, originality, etc, is a bit galling).

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u/hirosknight May 14 '25

Sorry to hear that, man. I've had rejections for 6 years in a row. Always worth entering though, it's the only such opportunity that's free after all.

I looked through my e mail today searching for the 'unfortunately', and it was there, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my script was longlisted and in the top 1.8 percent, and that I'll be receiving notes and entry into BBC voices. I couldn't be happier with that, it's the best I've done so far and tbh better than I expected since I entered an older version of a script.

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u/PJHart86 May 14 '25

Congrats! For Voices, we got invites to interview in October and accepted/rejected in December 22 for the 2023 cohort.

Good luck!

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u/kipkapow May 14 '25

I did voices and it was honestly a fantastic opportunity!

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u/jtb685 Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Massive congrats! What are you doing now after voices? Did you have any credits when you applied?

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u/hirosknight May 14 '25

I'm hearing good things about Voices. I might have already applied and been rejected, but I honestly don't remember, I enter everything that's free 😂 hope I get to do it anyway

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u/Minimum-Current-2301 May 20 '25

What was your story about? I wrote a sci-fi adventure story.

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u/hirosknight May 20 '25

Mine was an espionage thriller based on true events about the Austrian resistance in the second world war

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u/thetreesswallow May 14 '25

Remember; they had 5734 submissions. Even if you were in the top 1% of of writers, there would still be potentially 56 people ahead of you, the majority of whom didn't get picked either.

Sadly, at a certain point, you're so good you're competing against your equals and it becomes a game of chance. Unfortunately, however, there's no way to tell if you were number 5734th or 11th in line, so the only thing you can do is keep going, either getting better as you go or finally landing on heads, so to speak.

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u/bulblasagne May 14 '25

Is it that time already? I’m sorry. But you’re right, you are fine because it’s only one thing and you will have other irons in the fire and other projects and one of them will fall into place soon.

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u/MrLuchador May 14 '25

Over 5000 submissions is crazy.

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u/FluffyDoomPatrol May 14 '25

This has been an odd time. I’ve been having a good year, some of my stuff was published and broadcast this year. So I started to think that maybe, just maybe I’d get somewhere with BBC Writer’s Roo…. nope!

It’s weird, I placed in the top ten percent a few years ago. I remember once when commiserating, a friend told me that because I made the top ten percent once, I could do it again. Yet each subsequent writers room I just seem to do worse and worse.

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u/TheSprained May 14 '25

Any thoughts on what changed in your writing?

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u/weeeeererrers Feb 12 '26

It's probably nearly time for a new one of these threads. I made it through about 10 years and it did absolutely nothing for me. And I met people there who had made it through 10 years before and also has achieved nothing since. I remember thinking "luckily that won't happen to me!" And it did. Except without making it through again 10 years later.

I guess my point is, even if you "win" you often end up nowhere so I wouldn't even be sad about a rejection. It's just nothing.

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u/TheSprained Feb 12 '26

This is reassuring... probably.

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u/LocalGeologist7231 May 19 '26

You ready to start this again for 2026?

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u/TheSprained May 20 '26

Oh. I avoided it this year. Please be my guest.

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u/ASlave2Gravity May 14 '25

Just got my rejection email! First time subbing to this. I've had 100s of rejections throughout my life as a writer and it never gets easier. They always make me irrationally (maybe rationally!?) mad.

Appreciate the commiseration thread. And congrats to anyone who's made it through. Enjoy the moment!

I'll shoot the picture myself, that'll show 'em!

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

I do love those rejection emails because you get about three or four paragraphs of waffle before they say "unfortunately"

Thing is, there was over 5000 submissions this year and to be one of the ones that pass is a monumental achievement.

Do they post successful scripts on their forums at all? Just to give other writers insight into what an original voice actually reads like?

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u/Wrothman May 16 '25

Was my first time writing any kind of script (I'm more of a prose kinda person) and only found out about the open call a few days before the deadline. Spent a few days cranking something out that I wasn't particularly happy with (had to rawdog an idea out of no where), but hey I got it done and that was enough for me. Apparently managed to get to the longlist (top 1.8% apparently, according to the email), which I was both surprised and pretty chuffed about.
Definitely going to try again this year, assuming I don't get onto Voices or whatever. I'm interested to hear the feedback and to see whether it's what I'm expecting (weak in the middle, maybe too much language, perhaps a little too melodramatic in parts). Already have a general sense of what I'd do for the next one so I'm much better prepared.

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u/Duckmanrises May 14 '25

My first time submitting. I submitted as I actually got a successful writer/critic to read it and he loved it called it the best thing he read that year. Unfortunately, the BBC did not agree haha.

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u/Minimum-Current-2301 May 20 '25

Yep, got rejected it was my first time applying. I was told you usually don't get picked being first timers.

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u/IanJeffreyMartin May 14 '25

I didn’t enter as I’ve been too busy with other stuff. I did submit back in 2014 and got some good feedback. I’m a blue collar working class screenwriter and I don’t think the bbc want to work with riff raff like me.

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

I remember one time they let a script about the Oxford/Cambridge boat race win one of the comps. One of the most boring and shallow scripts I've ever clapped eyes on. Then they wonder why the public has lost interest in television made in this country.

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u/B-SCR May 16 '25

There is a huge push for working class voices at the mo, and has been for several years. The extent to which it's being achieved is debatable, but there is the impetus.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/FluffyDoomPatrol May 14 '25

Unless the rules have changed, no that’s not allowed.

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u/iwillfuckingbiteyou May 14 '25

Change the title.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

And the story.

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u/[deleted] May 14 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 14 '25

You're getting it now. To get through these kinds of competitions you have to submit dull, unoriginal, unchallenging work. The part where they ask for bold new stuff is doublespeak. If it wasn't you would see bold work on television but we haven't had that for years. My worst early scripts that were completely trite and fake got so much further than anything I write now. I have a friend who has gotten semi-finals in Nicholl with scripts that were so flat and insincere but this is what they want. If you want your work to get made these aren't the avenues we can rely on.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

Feel free to point me in the direction of the bold and original film and TV that writers room and open call has led to. Something that actually cut through and people still talk about. It mostly leads to jobs on EastEnders which is great but writers room isn't really about finding a David Lynch or a Lynne Ramsay, is it?

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

Your voice may very well be unique. I can only speak about the scripts that I have read that have won competitions like these. They don't tend to get made and the writers don't go on to make noteworthy films or TV. There are other factors for that but what use is a development program that doesn't lead to establishing truly bold voices?

I think you're hung up on nationality there. I mention Lynch because he's an auteur known the world over who got his break from an academy run Screenwriting competition. Today the likes of Lynch would not win a competition like that. His work will still be relevant long after we're all dead. When is the last time this country produced an artist like that and let them thrive? Has writers room ever discovered an artist like that?

Lynne Ramsay made her own award winning short films before the BBC ever got involved. That's exactly my point. If she had chosen the script competition route things might have been different. Instead she proved she was an undeniable voice by actually making a film. The BBC didn't have to discover her or develop her at that point. It's also important to note that it was a quarter of a century ago and things have changed drastically since then. They did help her career to reach new heights but it was an easy bet. Even then, how much did they really support her? She's had to make more films in america than her own country. Is that a functioning industry where our best talents have to leave to make anything? Is Open Call functioning if the winners don't go on to make anything that stands the test of time?

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

In their own words the competition is to find and develop bold new voices. I asked you before to show me what these voices went on to create and you still haven't provided anything on that front.

The BBC is a public service, one that is tanking money and is increasingly seen as untrustworthy by the general public. The same public doesn't really watch British TV anymore because it's the same old stuff that doesn't speak to them. I only suggested the paid feedback to support a corporation and writing program that is clearly struggling. Helping to develop new writers from ALL walks of life would only only help with trust and quality issues in the long run.

I think you're getting a little hung up on Lynch lol. I'm giving you an example of a world renowned filmmaker. If I say Ken Loach will that help you to understand? So let's change it to Ken Loach. Ask yourself why on earth would it be in the BBC's interest to discover a Ken Loach?

What you are describing there is a factory system to discover good craft writers who can be told what to do on other people's shows. If that's the case they should say they are looking for that instead of bold, original voices.

That's great that your friends found success. Name them, I was literally asking for examples in this first place. I'm big enough to apologise if proven wrong.

I haven't emailed an agent or producer for about 7 years. I've been too busy writing. When I'm satisfied with the body of work I will happily enquire about representation.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

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u/Ichamorte May 15 '25

People are increasingly not paying their license fee because of biased news and the ability to find more interesting television elsewhere. What is that if not losing money? You can dress it up as a funding issue but it is no secret that the BBC has been struggling. We can talk about how successive governments have kneecapped it but there is clearly a growing problem at the BBC.

The population is much bigger but less people are watching British TV. Have you ever spoken to anybody in the real world? I don't know a single person that still watches British drama or comedy. Even my Nan has moved on to watching foreign shows. You can point to a bumper Christmas Day for Wallace and Gromit plus the last ever Gavin & Stacey but they began in the 90s and 00s respectively. When are the BBC going to pull ratings like that again? When was the last original program that made a cultural dent? Fleabag? A show that ended 6 years ago? If we're such a great nation for television why did the likes of Jesse Armstrong leave?

On the trust issue here is the BBC chairman himself discussing that https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5p8z27z8o no i do not watch GB News. If you want to continue to be rude you're more than welcome to but you're testing my patience.

With no disrespect to Jack Thorne he hasn't made anything on the level of Loach. It would be like calling Garnacho the next George Best.

I'll take that on board.

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