One of the corporation’s senior executives said such programmes were too old-fashioned since they feature white individual presenters imparting their knowledge of a subject.
It is too “static” and such presenters no longer excite audiences, Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC Four, told the Edinburgh Television Festival.
He complained about other channels, including BBC Two. “There’s a mode of programming that involves a presenter, usually white, middle-aged and male, standing on a hill and ‘telling you like it is’. We all recognise the era of that has passed.”
The former head of BBC Comedy, Shane Allen, said the corporation is now intent on hiring people “who reflect the modern world”.
A number of comedy programmes featuring ethnic minorities were unveiled, but remain unknown. The BBC 3 show Famalam, which has a black cast, highlighted the corporation’s “diverse” new content, said Allen.
Breitbart London previously reported on how the corporation offered internships which excluded white applicants, claiming that the drive for “diversity” was to ensure that the BBC’s staff “reflects the UK”.
Paid internships at the BBC World Service was “only open to candidates from a black, Asian or non-white ethnic minority background”.
But it appears that ethnic minorities are not under-represented, but over-represented. The BBC’s Equality Information Report for 2017 showed that black and minority ethnic (BME) people make up 14.5 percent of the corporation’s staff, even though they are less than 13 percent of Britain’s population.