David Olusoga praised for ‘powerful’ speech on race and the television industry

The broadcaster gave Edinburgh TV festival's James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture
Rachel McGrath25 August 2020

MP David Lammy, actress Rebecca Front and BBC radio DJ MistaJam have praised David Olusoga for his speech on race and the television industry.

The historian reflected on his experiences as a black broadcaster in the annual James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, the keynote speech of the Edinburgh TV Festival.

He said there is a “lost generation” of black and brown people who did not stay in the business.

“I stand here today not as one of the TV industry success stories, but as a survivor,” he said. “I am one of the last men standing of TV’s lost generation.

PA

“The generation of black and brown people who entered this industry 15, 20, 25 years ago with high hopes," Olusoga continued.

“I’m a survivor of a culture within TV that failed that generation.

“I’m here because a handful of people used their power and their privilege to help me.”

Olusoga said that during his early years in television “there were parts of the industry in which diversity meant making sure that there was a fair balance of people from Oxford and Cambridge”.

He added that it is “lonely” as a black person in the television industry.

“Being the only black person on a production means being the only person asking certain questions, the only person uncomfortable that an image or a sequence reinforces certain stereotypes,” he said.

“Like other black people I know in this industry I’ve spent my career complaining that scripts or rough cuts contain interviews with white experts, while all the black contributors are victims of the phenomena in question are speaking about their personal experiences – their feelings not their expertise.”

Olusoga added he had been labelled as “difficult” during his career and said that while he has received “amazing opportunities”, he has also been “patronised and marginalised”.

“I’ve been in high demand, but I’ve also been on the scrap heap,” he said.

“I’ve felt inspired, and convinced that our job – making TV and telling stories – is the best job in the world.

“But at other times I’ve been so crushed by my experiences, so isolated and dis-empowered by the culture that exists within our industry, that I have had to seek medical treatment for clinical depression.

“I’ve come close to leaving this industry on several occasions. And I know many black and brown people who have similar stories to tell.”

Labour MP Mr Lammy thanked Olusoga for an “exemplary, masterly and sobering” lecture.

“Your unique eloquence tonight demands attention,” he wrote on Twitter. “It will without doubt be a catalyst to once and for all shift the dial on diversity on the television industry.”

The Thick Of It star Front shared a transcript to his speech, urging her followers to read it.

She labelled his remarks as “profound, powerful and personal”, adding that the speech was "a call to arms for the TV industry."

BBC Radio 1xtra DJ Mistajam also praised Olusoga’s lecture.

“As someone who has worked in television and also as someone who works in radio and has done for 15 years, every single word resonated,” he tweeted.

Reporting by Press Association