Vanessa Thorpe 

June Sarpong: ‘BBC gets a hard time but in some ways we’re ahead on diversity’

The corporation’s director of creative diversity says it is setting the pace for inclusivity in UK broadcasting
  
  

June Sarpong says there have been ‘uncomfortable conversations’ going on at the corporation.
June Sarpong says there have been ‘uncomfortable conversations’ going on at the corporation. Photograph: Ray Moody

June Sarpong, the TV presenter turned BBC executive, has revealed that she has “rarely” been on sets “where there were other people of colour”. The comments will reignite a debate around diversity and representation in the television and film industry, which has come under fire since the start of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer.

But Sarpong hit back at claims made by the film director Steve McQueen in the Observer last month and by the Killing Eve actress Sandra Oh that America has made more progress when it comes to representing minority groups on air and behind the scenes.

“I have worked in the US and here over 20 years, and I would say they are not so great in every regard over there. They have many other problems to deal with there,” said Sarpong, 43.

“We all realise Britain has been slow,” Sarpong responded, “but I don’t look at the US situation as a holy grail we have to reach. Rarely have I been on sets in either country where there were other people of colour. Except, that is, for my hairdresser and make-up artist, and that is because I brought them with me.”

Last week, BBC Radio announced it would commit £12m of its commissioning budget to making diverse and inclusive content for the next three years. This followed last month’s unveiling of an overall BBC plan to devote £100m of the current television commissioning budget to on-air inclusivity for the same period. It is to be backed by a mandatory off-screen target for 20% diversity across the networks for new commissions from April next year.

Sarpong, who was made the BBC’s first director of creative diversity in November, was speaking to the Observer ahead of the BBC’s starry online festival CDX, or Creative Diversity Xperience. An interactive showcase of talent, as well as a forum for discussing issues such as quotas and the ghettoisation of black content, it will feature Michaela Coel, creator and star of the hit drama I May Destroy You, who will give a writing masterclass, while the actor Cynthia Erivo will be interviewed by Radio 1’s Clara Amfo.

“The BBC often gets a hard time as it is held to a higher standard, and so it should be because it is a public service,” said Sarpong. “But in some ways we are ahead. A lot of uncomfortable conversations have been going on for a while now, for instance over the treatment of Naga Munchetty [the BBC Breakfast presenter who was criticised for taking issue with President Trump’s racially loaded language]. So much of the stuff we have been able to announce in the last few weeks we’ve been working on for a long time.”

ITV this month announced a Diversity Acceleration Plan, designed to have an effect within 12 months, and starting with the appointment of a diversity and inclusion director.

And Sky, where Sarpong appears on the discussion show The Pledge, made its own pledge in June to spend £30m over three years “on the fight against racism and inequality”.

“It is wonderful that others are joining in with this,” said Sarpong. “We may be competitors in other areas but this is something the whole industry is grappling with.”

 

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