Channel 4 content boss Ian Katz has criticized broadcasters, including his own, for too often “defaulting” to “clichéd, picture postcard” depictions of the UK.
Following on from the success of Birmingham-based BAFTA-winner Late Night Lycett, Katz told the Wales Screen Summit his team is “thinking hard about the way in which our shows represent different parts of the country, differentiating between representation where place is at the heart of the program and what we call incidental representation.”
“We want both, and we want less of the clichéd, picture postcard representation that all broadcasters including Channel 4 have often been guilty of defaulting too,” he said.
In Late Night Lycett, comedian Joe Lycett, who famously took on David Beckham by pretending to burn £10,000 in protest at the footballer’s Qatar World Cup partnership, has “done more to change perceptions of Birmingham than anyone beyond [Peaky Blinders] star Cillian Murphy,” added Katz. The show won the BAFTA on Sunday, in what was Channel 4’s record BAFTA haul for 22 years. Katz said the shows that had won “would not have been made by any other streamer or broadcaster.”
Speaking from Cardiff, Katz said he is now seeking a similar show from Wales, which could do for the nation what Steph’s Packed Lunch has done for Leeds or Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness has done for Scotland.
Katz also revealed that next year’s coverage of the Paris Paralympics will be produced from Wales by established Sony-backed Paralympics producer Whisper, which will see around 200 staff from the region working across the coverage.