When is a Scottish TV show not a Scottish TV show?
(When it’s actually English!)
TELEVISION shows are wrongly being branded as Scottish to meet broadcasting quotas, MSPs have been warned.
Industry representatives yesterday told Holyrood’s culture committee that productions are mislabelled as ‘out of London’ – and that companies are involved in ‘brass plating’.
The BBC was condemned by MSPs in December for labelling programmes – including the Women’s FA Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea – as ‘Scottish productions’.
And the culture committee yesterday heard evidence that a more robust assessment system was needed.
David Smith, national representative for Scotland of trade association Pact, said Ofcom should be more proactive in auditing details about Scottish productions.
He said: ‘An element of spotchecking, a bit more detail required on that form, an undertaking by the production company and the broadcaster that it is legal, decent, honest and true, that this is authentic, that they have met the spirit as well as the letter of the rules, and then Ofcom’s ability to check on that.
‘Ofcom is not a proactive system, it is a reactive system. If you raise a complaint Ofcom investigates. Maybe that has to change.’
At a previous committee meeting, convener Joan McAlpine criticised the BBC’s Scots-classed Rillington Place as ‘nothing to do with Scotland’, despite using Glasgow, Paisley and Bo’ness as backdrops. To be deemed Scottish, a production must meet criteria on spending and jobs north of the Border, and whether show executives are based here.
Miss McAlpine said: ‘You could be making a programme which is badged as a Scottish programme which has nothing at all to do with Scotland. It’s not just the BBC.
‘The Ofcom list of Scottish productions, it includes a Channel 4 production of Alan Titchmarsh following the footsteps of AA Milne around Harrods’ toy department in Surrey.’
At yesterday’s meeting, Nationalist MSP Stuart McMillan raised concerns about brass plating. The term usually refers to a firm whose only tangible existence where it is supposedly based is the name plate outside its office.
Mr McMillan said: ‘If there is a process that’s taking place of this kind of brass plating, or just trying to find an address, that’s not good enough.’
Bruce Malcolm, head of service development at BBC Scotland, said broadcasters relied on evidence from production firms.
He said: ‘If these are not being filled in correctly or dishonestly, then that’s another issue entirely that we would take very seriously.
‘If there’s dishonesty on behalf of production companies, that’s a different matter.’