30 | Broadcast | 23 August 2019 broadcastnow.co.uk
FRANKIE BOYLE
Frankie Goes To Russia: the
comedian visited the host country
ahead of the 2018 Fifa World CupI enjoy the whole process of making
TV, but that doesn’t mean it’s not
hard work at the time. I suppose the
only bit that’s really diffi cult is being
in London for extended periods
- I live in Glasgow.
What I really love about making
New World Order is the idea that
we’re this little outpost of something
different; that there’s a feeling of
boldness to it, that the guests are
excited to be on it and that we’re
excited to have them.
How is making comedy for TV
different to working on material
for your stand-up shows?
I’m in a writers’ room for New World
Order, so it’s a completely different
process. It tends to involve watching
a lot of clips and having the other
writers try to trigger my anxieties
about space – I have a profound
cosmic fear of outer space – and the
Large Hadron Collider.
The rest of the year, I’m writing on
my own, usually stand-up, but some-
times articles. I seem to have reached
a nice point where everything good I
write during the year fi nds a home in
the series somewhere. I had a month
off from writing in May, for the fi rst
time in years, and I really missed it.
What are your remaining
ambitions for making shows?
I’d like to write a sitcom. We’ve got
a pitch for one in at the minute; an
ensemble thing. I still feel properly
excited about getting commissioned
to write a script. It doesn’t even
need to get made, just the fact that
this bit of work will exist that didn’t
exist before.
Steven Dick and I wrote a farce for
BBC Radio 4 a few years ago. It’s on
YouTube somewhere, and the fact that
something we did is out there and
maybe 100,000 people will listen to
it over its lifetime – I love that.
I’d still like us to have another go
at writing a farce series. I think you
could do it in a clever, interesting
and even mainstream way and still
retain the whole ‘I-can’t-believe-
they-did-that-Joe-Orton’ feel that
the best farces have.
And what’s next on the agenda?
I’m fi lming Frankie Boyle’s Tour Of
Scotland [working title] for Cheeky
Grin/Two Rivers Media and BBC2. It
follows me doing a stand-up tour. I
currently spend about three hours a
day reading Scottish history, then
write a joke about something com-
pletely unrelated.Are there enough diverse
voices in British TV comedy?
How can we encourage more?
People who work in the media have to
accept that there is structural resistance
to representation and that we have to
do what we can to give a platform to a
more diverse range of voices.
To be honest, saying that we need to
do better seems to be just part of the
process of not doing better. Look at
directing, a position that is unique as
a discipline, demanding cerebral and
artistic insight: just 1.5% of fi lm and
TV directors in Britain are black or
minority ethnic, roughly one sixth
of what it should be.
I mean, we do discuss representa-
tion occasionally in the British main-
stream, but we rarely proceed to the
obvious and awkward conclusion:
that non-white people are viewed, in
this culture, as lacking qualities both
of intelligence and artistic impulse;
that non-white people are viewed as
less than human by a society that they
are expected to live in.
Possibly this is a delusion that
Britain embraces willingly, maybe
because it fears their stories or possibly
because they might include an awkward
section where we blew their granny
out of a cannon. Non-representation
is just the cultural equivalent of not➤Continued from page 29
being able to meet someone’s
gaze. Only a few years ago, we
spoke of ‘diversity’ – and I think
‘representation’ is a much better
word – but perhaps it’s time to
start using the word ‘exclusion’.What are the biggest issues
that bug you about the
TV industry?
Producers probably have far more
interesting answers to that question
than performers. In a way, good
producers protect us from the realities
of the industry somewhat.
There’s a class problem in TV, obvi-
ously; Britain is wonderful at fi nding
ways of not mentioning class.
TV is just far too complacently
middle class and London-centric, for
an industry whose job it is to relate to
the population as a whole. It isn’t
really that diffi cult to diversify your
industry a little. You offer bursaries
and support to the people you want to
attract – I know some of that happens,
but clearly not enough.
There was a study last year that
said your parents owning a house
in London will soon be a key factor
in social mobility, as entry-level
positions in TV require you to work
for less than rent. That should worry
the industry: people have more choice
now; they can choose media that
speaks to them, and if you aren’t
making it they’ll go elsewhere. The
days of a tiny section of the population
making programmes for everyone
else have gone.Television
is just
far too
complacently
middle class and
London-centric,
for an industry
whose job it
is to relate to
the population
as a wholeTHE BROADCAST INTERVIEW