FOCUS session: As the UK production sector contracts, working-class creatives warn that inequities around development funding, commissioning power and access are accelerating an exodus of talent — with serious implications for audiences and broadcasters.
When UK screen leaders speak about “retaining talent”, they rarely specify which talent they mean. But for producers, directors and executives from working-class backgrounds, the question has become increasingly urgent.
In the FOCUS panel session Best in class: How do we protect working class talent in a contractng industry, an experienced panel examined class and access in British film and television, speakers from across factual, scripted and development described a system in which financial and professional risk is being pushed steadily downwards — disproportionately affecting those without savings, networks or inherited security.
“The reality is that the risk ends up on the indies and the freelancers,” said Victoria Musguin-Rowe, a development executive and executive producer. “If you don’t have a safety net, you simply can’t survive the waiting.”
Development without protection
Central to the discussion was the growing reliance on underpaid development models, particularly for small independents.
Paid development, panelists argued, often involves extensive deliverables for modest fees, followed by prolonged silence while projects sit in commissioning pipelines.
“You’re expected to deliver huge amounts of work, then wait weeks, months — sometimes years — to find out if it’s going anywhere,” said Musguin-Rowe. “If you don’t deliver, you don’t get commissioned. But if you do deliver, you’re still carrying all the risk.”
Large broadcasters including BBC and Channel 4 remain central to the commissioning ecosystem, but panelists argued that decision timelines and development fees have not adjusted to reflect the financial reality facing freelancers and small companies.
Class: the unprotected barrier
Unlike race, gender or disability, class is not a protected characteristic under UK equality law, a gap that several speakers said underpins broader inequities across the industry.
“Class sits at the centre of so many intersectional barriers,” Musguin-Rowe said. “If you’re working class and disabled, for example, you’re often expected to front access costs that a wealthier person could simply absorb.”
While the industry has invested heavily in diversity initiatives, panelists argued that working-class origin remains largely invisible — and therefore unaccountable — in recruitment and commissioning decisions.
Closed doors and lost pathways
Several speakers pointed to the collapse of traditional entry routes into television.
Mailroom jobs, secretarial roles and informal apprenticeships — once pathways into the industry — have largely disappeared, replaced by degree requirements and internships that often assume family financial support.
“The net hasn’t widened, it’s tightened,” said Ricky Kelehar, an executive producer with experience at the BBC and in the US. “People don’t even look at candidates without degrees now, even though plenty of them have the skills. Hiring is still overwhelmingly driven by personal contacts.”
Kelehar added that British television remains dominated by an educated middle class culture. “You can get so far,” he said, “but you’re always reminded that you’re not quite part of the set.”
DEI rollback and narrowing narratives
The panel also addressed concerns around the scaling back of DEI initiatives in parts of the industry, amid political and financial pressure.
Akua Gyamfi, founder of platform British Blacklist, warned that without intentional intervention, the industry risks reverting to narrow and stereotypical storytelling.
“If DEI goes, we go back to a very limited view of who gets to tell stories and what those stories look like,” Gyamfi said. “Black and working-class experiences become reduced again to crime, struggle and trauma — because those are the narratives people feel ‘safe’ commissioning.”
Organisations such as BFI and BAFTA continue to support access schemes, but speakers stressed that real change requires representation at commissioner level, not just development programmes.
An audience problem, not a niche issue
One of the panel’s strongest warnings concerned audiences.
Working-class viewers remain the largest demographic for UK television and streaming platforms, yet panelists argued that many feel increasingly alienated by content that does not reflect their lives.
“If broadcasters don’t commission working-class stories told by working-class people, they’ll lose those audiences,” Musguin-Rowe said. “And once trust goes, it’s very hard to get back.”
“I’m 40 and poorer than ever”
The financial pressure is not limited to new entrants. Gemma Gander, co-founder of Two Step Films, described the cumulative impact of instability on mid-career creatives.
“I’m in my 40s, I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, and I feel poorer than ever,” Gander said. “If it was my time again, I honestly don’t know how I’d do it now. And that worries me for the next generation.”
Gander added that without intervention, the industry risks reverting to a narrow leadership class. “If working-class people can’t afford to stay, then only the already-privileged end up controlling everything.”
What change would look like
Rather than abstract reform, panelists called for practical, enforceable measures, including:
Fixed response deadlines on paid development
Development fees aligned with actual deliverables
Monitoring state-educated representation alongside other diversity metrics
Earlier access to authorship, IP ownership and creative control
Above all, speakers emphasised the need for more working-class voices in commissioning rooms.
“Until enough of us are in the decision-making spaces,” Musguin-Rowe said, “the system won’t change.”
Despite the challenges, the panel remained cautiously hopeful, pointing to the resilience of working-class creatives who continue to build alternative routes, mentor new entrants and create independent platforms.
But the warning was clear.
“This industry has always relied on people who don’t come from privilege,” said Kelehar. “The danger now is that we’re building a system where only privileged people can afford to stay.”
In a contracting market, many agreed, that may prove to be an unsustainable cost.
