UK government urged to act to halt exodus of industry’s disabled and freelance workers
Jack Thorne and Adeel Amini used their acceptance speeches at the annual Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) Awards last night to issue calls for action to support the industry’s disabled and freelance workers, respectively.
Thorne, who was picking up the award for best writer for his work on Adolescence, Toxic Town and The Hack, said that the UK government’s recent “savage” cuts to its Access to Work scheme are failing people with disabilities who work in the screen sector.
Thorne, a determined campaigner for the rights of disabled people, pointed to his co-writer on The Hack, Annalisa D’Innella, who is partially sighted and has had her grant cut by 85%.
“They’re doing this to disabled people all over the country,” said Thorne, who called on the industry to fight the cuts while also namechecking Kyla Harris (We Might Regret This), Bryony Arnold (Code of Silence) and theatre director Jenny Sealey as people who have been impacted so far.
Access to Work, once regarded as a cornerstone of disability employment support, is now failing on multiple fronts and has been shown to be characterised by extreme waiting times, inconsistent decisions, inaccessible processes and steep reductions in support, Disability Rights UK has highlighted.
“We’ve tried to change the landscape for disabled people in this country and in our industry and we are going to fail unless the Access to Work cuts are reversed,” said Thorne, who was instrumental in the launch of The TV Access Project in 2022, an initiative aimed at helping improve access for disabled talent across the TV industry.
Meanwhile, TV producer Adeel Amini picked up a BPG Members Special Award for his work as founder of The TV Mindset, an industry initiative that aims to provide professional and peer support for freelancers, particularly around mental health.
Amini praised Thorne for his campaigning efforts and, with recent figures suggesting almost three-quarters of those working in the UK’s film and TV industry are considering leaving, called for urgent action to improve conditions in an increasingly fragile TV industry.
Amini called on employers to move beyond token gestures and deliver real change: “Don’t just put posters on a wall about coffee mornings or do token diversity schemes. Instead, double down on promises to make this industry more equitable. We know all too well from recent headlines, not doing so will damage you way more than it damages us.”
The 52nd annual BPG Awards saw Netflix’s Adolescence yet again dominate another ceremony, receiving gongs for best miniseries, best actor (Stephen Graham), best actress (Erin Doherty) and best writer (Thorne). Meanwhile, the show’s young star, Owen Cooper, was awarded the BPG Breakthrough Talent Award.
Graham and Doherty’s turns in Disney+’s A Thousand Blows and Thorne’s work on Toxic Town (Netflix) and The Hack (ITV) also contributed to their wins.
Hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, the awards were voted by the sector’s leading media journalists and saw some of the biggest names in UK broadcasting in attendance.
The Celebrity Traitors (BBC One), Amandaland (BBC One), Louis Theroux: The Settlers (BBC Two), Blue Lights (BBC One) and Educating Yorkshire (Channel 4) were recognised in the entertainment, comedy, single doc, drama and documentary categories, respectively.
The BPG also handed out five special awards, with The Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting awarded to screenwriter, producer and director Sally Wainwright OBE.
Wainwright is known for dramas including Scott & Bailey (ITV), Last Tango in Halifax (BBC One), BAFTA winning Happy Valley (BBC One) and Riot Women (BBC One), which she was also nominated for at this year’s awards in the best writer category.
BPG chair Matt Deegan described Wainwright as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in British television drama and praised her ability to create “culturally defining” programming, particularly in the north of England.
The BPG Innovation Award went to pop-up 1980s themed radio station WSQK: The Squawk, which was launched by Global for Netflix for its promotion of the final season of hit series Stranger Things.
London-based content creator Specs Gonzalez (Sky Sports’ Scenes) was presented with The Emerging Creator Award and urged those in the audience who, like himself, are nearing 40 to set up their own TikTok and Snapchat accounts and start creating on the social media platforms. “There are no rules,” Gonzalez said.
Also receiving a BPG Members Special Award was veteran writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, who stepped down as host of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time after 26 years last year.
Elsewhere in audio, the Stewart Lee-fronted What Happened to Counter-Culture? (BBC Radio 4) was named programme of the year, while BBC Radio 2’s Sara Cox won presenter of the year. Podcast of the year went to Ill-Advised by Bill Nighy (Eyepod Studios).
