C4’s Katz: Coel speech is ‘wake-up call’

UK pubcaster Channel 4’s director of programmes has described Michaela Coel’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday as a “powerful and important wake-up call” for the TV industry.

Ian Katz

Coel created and starred in comedy series Chewing Gum, which aired on C4’s youth-skewing E4 network. The writer and actor used the annual address to urge greater transparency in the TV industry when it comes to racism, diversity and sexual misconduct. She also recounted her own experience of sexual assault, which took place while she was working on a script deadline.

Ian Katz, who replaced Jay Hunt as C4’s programming chief last year, said Coel’s speech “raised vital questions about opportunity, support, transparency and inclusion that, as an industry, we must all address with urgency.”

Katz added: “The experiences she has described in her lecture are not what we would want for anyone working with Channel 4 or any part of our industry.”

Coel was also critical of the way the industry works with diverse talent, claiming new “misfit” writers are having their voices diluted by immediately being paired with more experienced writers.

Katz said Coel had “opened an honest debate about how we ensure that writers and performers, whatever their backgrounds, feel respected and heard,” adding: “We want an industry that truly celebrates difference and is accessible to all, so broadcasters and producers now need to work in partnership to act on the issues she has raised.”

Coel’s speech followed news that she is writing and starring in a provocative new drama for BBC2. With the working title Jan 22nd, the show will explore sexual consent in contemporary life.