MY VIEW

It’s vital we make a variety of TV dramas to reflect society, says this BAFTA winner

Back in 1993 I was lucky enough to receive my first BAFTA, when the Falklands War drama An Ungentlemanly Act was named Best Single Drama. It starred Ian Richardson and Bob Peck, and I wrote and directed it. I remember my wife turning to me and saying, ‘You’ve made it’ – then I didn’t work for six months! So tomorrow night I’ll be just that little bit more grateful now that, 24 years on, I’ve been nominated again, for The Secret, the James Nesbitt drama I wrote for ITV based on a shocking double murder case in Northern Ireland.

The older, hopefully wiser me will also appreciate meeting with fellow writers, as well as producers I’ve become acquainted with such as Suzanne Mackie and Andy Harries, whose series The Crown has received nominations for four awards.

TV today is very different to the 90s, when a great cast and script would ensure a programme got made and there wasn’t the hierarchy of commissioning editors with their own agendas and quotas to be fulfilled that producers face now.

The recent advent of providers such as Amazon and Netflix has meant everyone in the industry has had to up their game, and there’s been the chance to do much more exciting work in the UK. However, we Brits still often have smaller budgets than our counterparts in the US, where they spend millions of dollars just developing a series. But I think the value of this investment shows when you consider the diversity of programmes nominated in the International category this year – from the contemporary The Night Of to period piece The People V OJ Simpson and transgender comedydrama Transparent. If we want to increase the variety of stories told on our TV screens, we need to look at how we fund our shows over here.

Downton Abbey was key to starting the recent renaissance of British TV drama but it now means that producers putting together new series have one eye on what will sell well abroad, and the global consumption of these big period pieces means they’re favoured over grittier dramas. I know the efforts it took to get a darker show such as The Secret on screen. Yet it’s hugely important we continue to make TV like The Secret otherwise we’re not doing our job as film-makers. We need to hold up a mirror to society, not in a way that’s sordid but that is direct and unflinching. That’s why when something like The Secret is acknowledged by your peers it’s an incredible honour and one that, thanks to the wisdom and experience I’ve gained over the last two decades, I’ll make sure I appreciate a little bit more than in 1993. British Academy Television Awards 2017, tomorrow, 8pm, BBC1.