Seventy-six women writers have banded together to pen an open letter to UK TV drama commissioners. Boiled down to its essence, the letter poses a very simple question to the execs: “Why are you not making drama by female writers?”
The scribes explain that every year the new projects being developed are “overwhelmingly … written by men.” This year less than 10 percent of new dramas greenlit by ITV will be written by women. “Perhaps you can now understand our rage?” they ask. “Less than 10 percent.” And ITV is far from the only network where male writers dominate writers’ rooms. As the letter details, “The statistics are not much better when you start channel-hopping. And so, we want to ask you, the commissioners, a very simple question. Why? Because we are at a loss.”
The letter combats the myth that there simply aren’t enough female writers out there to hire, and points out that many women are hired to write UK soap operas, described as “the boot camps of writing.” “They demand unrelenting creativity, consistency, and a photographic memory for years of story and enormous casts of characters,” the writers explain. “And yet these talented and hard-working female writers remain an untapped resource.” Rather than “graduating” on to “next-level” shows, the women’s careers seem to stall. They aren’t hired on to series such as “BBC’s ‘Silent Witness,’ which has employed only five female writers during its 20-year run. Or ‘Doctor Who,’ which managed to go five series without an episode written by a woman.”
The scribes also point to the success of women-penned series, highlighting the fact that hiring more women to write doesn’t equate to poor ratings. “Call the Midwife” and “Happy Valley” are written by women and draw huge audiences.
The writers acknowledge that there are “plenty of female-led projects on …development slates,” but wonder why so “very few of these shows are making it into production. The gap between being commissioned and being produced seems disproportionately large when it comes to women’s work, they observe. “And we’d really love to know why.”
On the bright side, the letter notes, “many of the new ITV dramas have female characters front and center. It is great to see that women’s stories are now being told. It’s just that we feel we might be better qualified to tell our own stories.”
The letter is already prompting networks to respond. “ITV head of drama Polly Hill said the list referred to by the writers is only part of the picture and that four new dramas written by women will be revealed soon,” Broadcast reports. “As we look to offer audiences the greatest range of drama, we will always support and commission female writers and take representation on- and off-screen seriously,” she said. We’ll have to wait for the numbers to see if these are empty promises or if meaningful change is in store.
BBC1 drama head Piers Wenger revealed that “women have written more than 40 percent of the drama he has ordered since taking up the role a year ago,” and the upcoming season of “Doctor Who” — the first with a female Doctor — has a “number” of episodes written by women. “Having a diverse team on that show feels appropriate, important, and essential,” he said.
You can read the letter from the 76 writers in full over at Broadcast.
