20 • The Sunday Times Magazine
understood that right from the very
beginning of my career, which was why
my first posting was to Japan. Not a lot
of black people in Japan,” he chuckles. In
2001 Greg Dyke, then director-general,
described the BBC as “hideously white”;
how hideous is it today? “It is a hell of a lot
better than it was then. Is it ideal? No. I think
we’ve done a lot better in terms of on
screen — the shop window, as it were.
We don’t have enough black producers or
black editors in senior positions in the
newsroom. But the BBC knows that its
existence is based on everyone being
invested in this organisation.”
Myrie has had to deal with vile racist
attacks, including being sent excrement,
a card with a gorilla on the front and death
threats (for which a man was jailed in 2019).
The abuse has increased in recent years.
“There has been an opening up of an
atmosphere that has allowed people to feel
it’s OK to say certain things and not be
sanctioned for it,” he says, arguing that we
should do away with online anonymity.
Watching trolls’ attacks on Twitter changed
his feelings from sadness to contempt.
“They’re literally just seeing a black person
— who could have been the doctor who
ends up having to save them if they’re in an
accident, or the fireman who pulls them out
of a burning building. I’m pretty sure they
wouldn’t see the melanin then, so I’m
thinking, ‘OK, then you’re just a sad f***.’ ”
When we meet, the controversial race
report conducted by Tony Sewell, an
education consultant, is back in the news;
it concluded that there was no evidence
that Britain is institutionally racist. “It
didn’t sit well with me, let’s put it like
that. You just have to listen to the lived
experiences of people of colour in this
country to understand there are
fundamental structural problems. I would
be amazed if that report had come out after
the whole situation concerning CharingCross police station, for instance,” Myrie
says, referring to the disturbing revelations
that 14 police officers, mostly constables,
had joked about killing black children, rape
and domestic abuse. “Just put those two
things together and I think it sums up why
that report was a bit of a car crash.”
Myrie has plenty of opinions; is it hard to
keep a lid on them for the impartial BBC?
“The older you get, the more set in your ways
you get, and you want to sound off about
stuff,” he says, grinning. “I do have opinions
on Brexit and Keir Starmer, or Boris Johnson.
Of course — I’m a freaking human being.
The point is, as soon as I walk through
those doors those opinions melt away.”
While we’re still in the hotel then, what
does he think of arch-Beeb critic Nadine
Dorries? He guffaws but won’t bite. “I just
hope that [all culture secretaries] appreciate
and understand what the BBC means to
the vast majority of this country, how
important it is,” he says carefully. “In factDetermined to be defined by his work, he
avoided reporting on “black issues” in the
early days. “My first posting was to Japan”