In a bid to win over her fellow contestants on hit BBC show The Traitors, London-born and bred Charlotte came up with a cunning plan.
She would pretend to not be English.
“I’ve been putting on a Welsh accent because my mum’s from Wales,” she explained to the cameras away from her rivals. “It’s one of the most trustworthy accents.”
As a theory, it was somewhat undermined the next day when the contestants decided Elen from Cardiff — an actual Welsh person with a real-life Welsh accent — was a bit shifty and definitely a traitor and voted to banish her.
She wasn’t, she was a faithful.
There’s some irony in a contestant on The Traitors pretending to be from one of the UK’s nations and regions but actually coming from London.
Under the Communications Act, public service broadcasters have a statutory requirement to commission a certain percentage of their programming from outside of London.
Appearing before the Scottish Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Hayley Valentine, the Director of BBC Scotland told MPs she thought The Traitors would “qualify as Scottish” under the three criterias set out by broadcasting regulation Ofcom.
They are that the production is managed from a “substantive base” in Scotland, that at least 70% of the production budget must be spent in Scotland, and that at least 50% of the production talent must have their usual place of employment in Scotland.
In a well-shared post on LinkedIn, the documentary filmmaker Peter Strachan has questioned just how Scottish The Traitors actually is.
His analysis suggests just 4.17% of above-the-line roles – creative, director, producer – are filled by off-screen talent based in Scotland.
On below-the-line roles – that is day-to-day filming and editing and the like – just 6.25% are north of the border.
Over 80% of the production team are based in London.
He points out that Studio Lambert, who produces The Traitors for the BBC, only has a temporary production office in Inverness-shire. Their website has just one person based in its Glasgow office.
Why does this matter? Are viewers going to notice, or care, if the editing on the big breakfast murder reveal is by someone in Stobo or Soho?
It matters because, as Valentine pointed out in her committee session on Tuesday, “we absolutely do have the skills” in Scotland.
And it matters, because this isn’t a new issue.
Read more from Unspun:
A report by Screen Scotland last year found that much of the BBC’s ‘Scottish’ network quota has been commissioned from London and produced by production companies with their HQs in London.
Only five of the Top 15 ‘Scottish’ producers for all public service broadcasting commissions were headquartered in Scotland.
They had, however, managed to meet the Ofcom criterion of having a ‘substantive base’ in Scotland because of a branch office.
The BBC needs to ensure that ‘Scottish’ productions are more than just an accent. They need to truly reflect and invest in Scotland’s creative talent.