PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN WALES
https://senedd.wales/media/vfmmf1d1/cr-ld16426-e.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68654383?fbclid=IwAR0w0UQo2z9SecsnrnERZNPYDU507KEjYw9qralOHSUvWw9eapAcXK4PEJE
Quote:
https://senedd.wales/media/vfmmf1d1/cr-ld16426-e.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68654383?fbclid=IwAR0w0UQo2z9SecsnrnERZNPYDU507KEjYw9qralOHSUvWw9eapAcXK4PEJE
It's good to see that the Welsh Assembly / Senedd has done another investigation of this matter. The Committee Report, just published, makes assorted worthy recommendations. But I was staggered to see that the Report contains virtually nothing about the in-depth representation of Wales (and the "selling of Wales") in public service broadcasting output. The Committee almost seems to be unaware that TV is a promotional medium, not just something used for entertainment and factual or news reporting.
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"70. The BBC also has work to do on ensuring that people across Wales feel represented by the services they receive. The scale of this challenge is clear as only half the Welsh population think the BBC reflects “people like them”. We are optimistic that improved representation will be one of the consequences of the BBC’s Across the UK plans. The BBC must be ambitious in these plans, and Ofcom need to be similarly ambitious in what it asks for from the broadcaster.
Recommendation 8. Ofcom should be ambitious in using its regulation of the BBC to drive improvements to the BBC’s representation and portrayal of people in Wales. The BBC and Ofcom should report back to this Committee before the end of the Sixth Senedd to report on its progress."
So there is no insistence that the BBC and the other broadcasters should devote serious resources to the telling of the Welsh story-- and play a role in developing Welsh national self-awareness and pride in its heritage. The "portrayal of people" in Wales is a different matter entirely. Wales is, arguably, already well portrayed through a string of "Celtic Noir" dramas, some of them good and some of them terrible -- but all portraying Wales as a pretty miserable place populated by psychopaths and weird hermits living in the dark woods and out on the bleak uplands! Owls, cobwebs, deserted farmhouses, and mutilated corpses proliferate.......
So there is no insistence that the BBC and the other broadcasters should devote serious resources to the telling of the Welsh story-- and play a role in developing Welsh national self-awareness and pride in its heritage. The "portrayal of people" in Wales is a different matter entirely. Wales is, arguably, already well portrayed through a string of "Celtic Noir" dramas, some of them good and some of them terrible -- but all portraying Wales as a pretty miserable place populated by psychopaths and weird hermits living in the dark woods and out on the bleak uplands! Owls, cobwebs, deserted farmhouses, and mutilated corpses proliferate.......
It's all very timid and unimaginative. A missed opportunity, since Welsh production companies currently spend much more of their time, and devote more of their expertise, to the telling of other peoples' stories rather than their own. That was a point made strongly round about the time of the last Committee review, a few years ago.
So are we nowadays a proud and confident nation with our own unique narrative? Not on this evidence. Scotland knows how to do it, with Wales lagging far behind.
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