Issues include how best to support the indie production sector, safe-guarding inward investment and overcoming exhibition challenges.
The UK government is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into the many challenges facing the UK’s film and high-end TV industry via the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport (Cms) Committee.
It will look at everything from what can be done to maintain the UK’s status as a global hub for international production to how independent producers can best be supported. Other issues under discussions include skills and retention in the industry and the best way in which the film and...
The UK government is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into the many challenges facing the UK’s film and high-end TV industry via the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport (Cms) Committee.
It will look at everything from what can be done to maintain the UK’s status as a global hub for international production to how independent producers can best be supported. Other issues under discussions include skills and retention in the industry and the best way in which the film and...
- 7/21/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Richard Sharp’s resignation as BBC Chairman over a Boris Johnson loan scandal has stoked division at the British broadcaster as thoughts turn to finding his successor.
The former Goldman Sachs banker will step down at the end of June after he failed to properly declare his role in facilitating Johnson’s £800,000 ($1M) loan guarantee as ministers went about installing him on the BBC board.
Barrister Adam Heppinstall concluded Sharp’s actions gave rise to a “perceived conflict of interest,” though he stopped short of concluding that the BBC Chairman sort to curry favor by involving himself in the Prime Minister’s private financial affairs.
Sharp has dug in for months since the story was first reported by The Sunday Times and maintained today that his failure to be fully transparent about Johnson’s loan was “inadvertent and not material.”
BBC employees were angry about The Sunday Times story when it broke in January,...
The former Goldman Sachs banker will step down at the end of June after he failed to properly declare his role in facilitating Johnson’s £800,000 ($1M) loan guarantee as ministers went about installing him on the BBC board.
Barrister Adam Heppinstall concluded Sharp’s actions gave rise to a “perceived conflict of interest,” though he stopped short of concluding that the BBC Chairman sort to curry favor by involving himself in the Prime Minister’s private financial affairs.
Sharp has dug in for months since the story was first reported by The Sunday Times and maintained today that his failure to be fully transparent about Johnson’s loan was “inadvertent and not material.”
BBC employees were angry about The Sunday Times story when it broke in January,...
- 4/28/2023
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
BBC chairman Richard Sharp made “omissions” and “significant errors of judgment,” the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons, one of the two chambers of the British parliament, has found.
Led by acting committee chair Damian Green, it published a report on his conduct and the process behind the appointment of Sharp to his BBC role amid recent accusations that he failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest. The report became public just after midnight London time on Sunday, days after the committee had questioned the 66-year-old.
In his Tuesday appearance in front of it, Sharp had defended himself after recent news reports said that he had helped to arrange a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson just weeks before the then-u.K. prime minister recommended Sharp for his current role at the British public broadcaster. With its chair under fire, the BBC board then unveiled...
Led by acting committee chair Damian Green, it published a report on his conduct and the process behind the appointment of Sharp to his BBC role amid recent accusations that he failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest. The report became public just after midnight London time on Sunday, days after the committee had questioned the 66-year-old.
In his Tuesday appearance in front of it, Sharp had defended himself after recent news reports said that he had helped to arrange a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson just weeks before the then-u.K. prime minister recommended Sharp for his current role at the British public broadcaster. With its chair under fire, the BBC board then unveiled...
- 2/12/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“I have never given Boris Johnson financial advice and know nothing about his affairs,” BBC Chair Richard Sharp declared this morning repeatedly of his relationship with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sharp also revealed he was working in Johnson’s Downing Street Home in the months leading up to applying for the BBC Chair role.
Sharp was pushed repeatedly by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (Dcmsc) on the way in which he is reported to have helped facilitate a circa-£800,000 loan for Johnson via their mutual associate Sam Blyth, who is Johnson’s distant cousin and an old friend of Sharp’s. Reports emerged late last month that Sharp helped facilitate the loan just prior to his appointment as BBC Chair. Blyth is acting as guarantor of the loan.
Under stringent questioning this morning, he strenuously denied that he had done anything else apart from connect Johnson with...
Sharp was pushed repeatedly by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (Dcmsc) on the way in which he is reported to have helped facilitate a circa-£800,000 loan for Johnson via their mutual associate Sam Blyth, who is Johnson’s distant cousin and an old friend of Sharp’s. Reports emerged late last month that Sharp helped facilitate the loan just prior to his appointment as BBC Chair. Blyth is acting as guarantor of the loan.
Under stringent questioning this morning, he strenuously denied that he had done anything else apart from connect Johnson with...
- 2/7/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
BBC chairman Richard Sharp defended himself against accusations of a conflict of interest during a U.K. parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday.
He appeared in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons after recent news reports that he had helped to arrange a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson just weeks before the then-u.K. prime minister recommended Sharp for his current role at the British public broadcaster. With Sharp under fire, the BBC board then unveiled that it would investigate the issue.
“I have never given financial advice to the former prime minister,” Sharp said on Tuesday, reiterating a previous statement on the issue. “I know nothing about his personal financial affairs,” he later added. “I didn’t facilitate a loan,” he also said in answering a question.
“I believe I was appointed on merit,” Sharp also said at one point during Tuesday’s committee grilling.
He appeared in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons after recent news reports that he had helped to arrange a loan guarantee for Boris Johnson just weeks before the then-u.K. prime minister recommended Sharp for his current role at the British public broadcaster. With Sharp under fire, the BBC board then unveiled that it would investigate the issue.
“I have never given financial advice to the former prime minister,” Sharp said on Tuesday, reiterating a previous statement on the issue. “I know nothing about his personal financial affairs,” he later added. “I didn’t facilitate a loan,” he also said in answering a question.
“I believe I was appointed on merit,” Sharp also said at one point during Tuesday’s committee grilling.
- 2/7/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Creative District Improvement Company has teamed up with property developers Quinn Estates to invest £250 million ($292 million) in Ashford International Studios, a new film and TV studios in Ashford, South-East England, which they say will create 3,000 jobs. The 15-acre site was formerly a locomotive manufacturing plant until the early 1980s.
The companies will convert the derelict Newtown Railway Works into 80,000 sq. ft. of studio space, 80,000 sq. ft. of ancillary production space, 50,000 sq. ft. of storage space, and a 30,000 sq. ft. media village, which will include the Future Media Center, an educational hub that will be developed in partnership with a cluster of educational institutions in the area. The plans also include a 120-room hotel, 68 serviced apartments, a conference center, and a 10,000 sq. ft. gym, restaurant and leisure space. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.
The Creative District Improvement Company will fund the Future Media Center in partnership with...
The companies will convert the derelict Newtown Railway Works into 80,000 sq. ft. of studio space, 80,000 sq. ft. of ancillary production space, 50,000 sq. ft. of storage space, and a 30,000 sq. ft. media village, which will include the Future Media Center, an educational hub that will be developed in partnership with a cluster of educational institutions in the area. The plans also include a 120-room hotel, 68 serviced apartments, a conference center, and a 10,000 sq. ft. gym, restaurant and leisure space. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.
The Creative District Improvement Company will fund the Future Media Center in partnership with...
- 3/22/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
A war of words around the future of the BBC continued on Monday amid reports of severe cutbacks to the U.K. public broadcaster.
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that Downing Street, the seat of the U.K. government, was planning to replace the annual BBC license fee with a subscription service; sell most of the corporation’s 61 radio channels with the exception of Radio 3 and Radio 4; reduce the number of television channels from the existing 10; and scale back the BBC website.
However, senior members of the ruling Conservative party have now come out to speak against these suggestions.
Member of Parliament Huw Merriman tweeted: “I’m not sure this vendetta against the #BBC is going to end well. No mention of it in our manifesto (where we actually promised to work with BBC to build new partnerships across globe) so I won’t be supporting it.
The Sunday Times reported over the weekend that Downing Street, the seat of the U.K. government, was planning to replace the annual BBC license fee with a subscription service; sell most of the corporation’s 61 radio channels with the exception of Radio 3 and Radio 4; reduce the number of television channels from the existing 10; and scale back the BBC website.
However, senior members of the ruling Conservative party have now come out to speak against these suggestions.
Member of Parliament Huw Merriman tweeted: “I’m not sure this vendetta against the #BBC is going to end well. No mention of it in our manifesto (where we actually promised to work with BBC to build new partnerships across globe) so I won’t be supporting it.
- 2/17/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
A petition to “save our BBC” has attracted more than 100,000 signatures in less than 24 hours after unnamed government sources threatened to “whack” the British broadcaster by scrapping the license fee and forcing it to radically scale back its services.
The 38 Degrees petition is a response to a report on the front page of Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Sunday Times, in which sources close to prime minister Boris Johnson set out a blueprint for how the BBC should be dismantled when its current charter expires in 2027.
The anonymous briefing said the license fee, which funds the BBC to the tune of £3.7 billion ($4.8B), should be scrapped and the corporation moved to a Netflix-style subscription funding model. The sources also said the BBC should be forced to sell off key radio stations, including Radio 2, and cut back its 10 television channels.
“We are not bluffing on the license fee. We...
The 38 Degrees petition is a response to a report on the front page of Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Sunday Times, in which sources close to prime minister Boris Johnson set out a blueprint for how the BBC should be dismantled when its current charter expires in 2027.
The anonymous briefing said the license fee, which funds the BBC to the tune of £3.7 billion ($4.8B), should be scrapped and the corporation moved to a Netflix-style subscription funding model. The sources also said the BBC should be forced to sell off key radio stations, including Radio 2, and cut back its 10 television channels.
“We are not bluffing on the license fee. We...
- 2/17/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
Bradley replaces John Whittingdale who departs after 14 months in the post.
Staffordshire MP and former Home Office minister Karen Bradley has been appointed culture secretary in Theresa May’s newly formed cabinet.
She replaces John Whittingdale, who departed earlier today after 14 months in the post, becoming the ninth culture secretary in the last ten years and the latest to oversee matters relating to broadcasting, particularly the BBC and C4.
She is a surprise choice with many political journalists predicting that Damian Green would secure the role. Green has been appointed work and pensions secretary in the reshuffle.
Bradley, who is MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, was previously appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Home Office in February 2014, where she worked closely with former Home secretary May.
She has been an MP since 2010 and in her role at the Home Office, has overseen measures to prevent child sex abuse, the regulation of online pornography, anti-social behaviour...
Staffordshire MP and former Home Office minister Karen Bradley has been appointed culture secretary in Theresa May’s newly formed cabinet.
She replaces John Whittingdale, who departed earlier today after 14 months in the post, becoming the ninth culture secretary in the last ten years and the latest to oversee matters relating to broadcasting, particularly the BBC and C4.
She is a surprise choice with many political journalists predicting that Damian Green would secure the role. Green has been appointed work and pensions secretary in the reshuffle.
Bradley, who is MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, was previously appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Home Office in February 2014, where she worked closely with former Home secretary May.
She has been an MP since 2010 and in her role at the Home Office, has overseen measures to prevent child sex abuse, the regulation of online pornography, anti-social behaviour...
- 7/14/2016
- ScreenDaily
John Whittingdale has lost his job as culture secretary.
John Whittingdale has lost his job as culture secretary after 14 months in the post.
The MP for Maldon tweeted his 6,600 followers that it had been a “privilege to serve as culture secretary” as it emerged he had been left out of new prime minister Theresa May’s first cabinet.
He added: “I wish my successor every success and will continue to support creative industries.”
Whittingdale took over as culture secretary in 2015 from business secretary Sajid Javid.
His departure is likely to be celebrated at Horseferry Road after the minister launched a review into the future of Channel 4’s ownership model and appeared to be in favour of privatising the public service broadcaster. In an interview with The Sunday Times in March he claimed C4 was “restrained by not being privatised”.
During his time in office, he also oversaw the white paper setting out the future of the...
John Whittingdale has lost his job as culture secretary after 14 months in the post.
The MP for Maldon tweeted his 6,600 followers that it had been a “privilege to serve as culture secretary” as it emerged he had been left out of new prime minister Theresa May’s first cabinet.
He added: “I wish my successor every success and will continue to support creative industries.”
Whittingdale took over as culture secretary in 2015 from business secretary Sajid Javid.
His departure is likely to be celebrated at Horseferry Road after the minister launched a review into the future of Channel 4’s ownership model and appeared to be in favour of privatising the public service broadcaster. In an interview with The Sunday Times in March he claimed C4 was “restrained by not being privatised”.
During his time in office, he also oversaw the white paper setting out the future of the...
- 7/14/2016
- ScreenDaily
Back in the day, there were lots of reports about people who thought The Office was real. Presumably tonight, there were lots of people who thought Meet The Police Commissioner was a spoof. It was not.
Yes, everything about this documentary - following Kent's first elected police and crime commissioner Ann Barnes - was bonafide, even if it felt like W1A a good chunk of the time... and it made us grateful that we're not followed by a cheeky camera crew. Read on for the most spoofesque moments of the documentary...
1. The onion of policing.
Who doesn't love a flip chart? Ann had one with circles within circles drawn on it, and explained: "These are all the various things, different kinds of policing in Kent, and these are the different kinds of policing priorities in terms of priority." But when she was asked to name a crime that would be on the outermost ring,...
Yes, everything about this documentary - following Kent's first elected police and crime commissioner Ann Barnes - was bonafide, even if it felt like W1A a good chunk of the time... and it made us grateful that we're not followed by a cheeky camera crew. Read on for the most spoofesque moments of the documentary...
1. The onion of policing.
Who doesn't love a flip chart? Ann had one with circles within circles drawn on it, and explained: "These are all the various things, different kinds of policing in Kent, and these are the different kinds of policing priorities in terms of priority." But when she was asked to name a crime that would be on the outermost ring,...
- 5/29/2014
- Digital Spy
Rick Edwards is to host a live debate on BBC Three to discuss the ongoing Syrian crisis.
A special episode of Free Speech will deal with the country's alleged use of chemical weapons and David Cameron losing the Parliamentary vote on military action.
An audience of 150 people aged 16-25 in Hackney will give their views on the Parliamentary vote and suggest what can be done to aid victims of the conflict.
The line-up of guests includes Labour MP Seema Malhotra, Conservative MP Damian Green, director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti and journalists Milo Yiannopoulos and Mehdi Hasan.
Tina Daheley will be running online questions and debates all day leading up to transmission.
Syria Crisis: Free Speech Special airs on Wednesday (September 4) at 8pm on BBC Three.
Edwards has fronted a number of documentaries for BBC Three in recent months, including one on Oscar Pistorius fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
A special episode of Free Speech will deal with the country's alleged use of chemical weapons and David Cameron losing the Parliamentary vote on military action.
An audience of 150 people aged 16-25 in Hackney will give their views on the Parliamentary vote and suggest what can be done to aid victims of the conflict.
The line-up of guests includes Labour MP Seema Malhotra, Conservative MP Damian Green, director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti and journalists Milo Yiannopoulos and Mehdi Hasan.
Tina Daheley will be running online questions and debates all day leading up to transmission.
Syria Crisis: Free Speech Special airs on Wednesday (September 4) at 8pm on BBC Three.
Edwards has fronted a number of documentaries for BBC Three in recent months, including one on Oscar Pistorius fatally shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
- 9/3/2013
- Digital Spy
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