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Peaky Blinders creator says government interference risks ‘breaking’ BBC | BBC


The creator of Peaky Blinders has said government interference in the BBC risks “breaking” one Britain’s most prestigious brands in a post-Brexit world.

Steven Knight said attempts to reform the broadcaster with moves such as replacing the license fee with a subscription model, could be disastrous.

“It’s our Coca-Cola – except it’s important and it means something,” Knight said.

“In this age of Brexit, if this government wants Britain to be strutting around the world, and banging its drum and doing things for itself then the BBC is right there – it is your megaphone.

“This isn’t about politics, it’s about the fact that what we have is a brand that is respected around the world and that is a conduit for soft power and, let’s face it, soft power is all we have got.”

Knight said the BBC could compete in the streaming wars by concentrating on quality content, saying claims Netflix and Amazon were weakening the broadcaster by luring away talent, such as Phoebe Waller-Bridge on lucrative deals, were misplaced.

“I think the opposite,” he said. “This has been proven by the BBC at the moment, which has never been so good. And its drama has never been so good. They have never been up to competing financially, but they compete with excellence. It’s always been the case.”

Last week, Knight confirmed that a planned seventh season of his Birmingham gangster saga Peaky Blinders had been axed because of filming being prevented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now a film will conclude the story, which has become one of the biggest British small screen successes in recent years, with Knight admitting he had no idea a “western set in Birmingham” would take off.

“It takes itself completely seriously. It has no shame, it has no embarrassment, it is total swagger,” he said. “You think it can’t be on an epic scale because it’s from [Birmingham] but I just decided to go for it, and it worked really well beyond anything I could have imagined.”

Knight is also working on a film and TV hub based in Birmingham, which has been called “Brummiewood” – a moniker he hates.

The project has faced delays because of the pandemic, but Knight said he wanted the space to become a production base like Cardiff and Bristol to deal with the influx in TV and film production to the UK, fuelled by content made by Netflix and Amazon.

“Such is the demand that it’s almost not a competition any more, it’s almost like all hands to pump,” he said. “There’s no reason why Birmingham can’t do the same thing Birmingham has always done, and be a place where things get made.”

Knight, who is from Birmingham, also commented on the lack of diversity behind the camera on productions shot in the Midlands. A recent Guardian report found that there were “invisible lines” separating diverse off-screen talent with jobs in the area.

“It’s one of the most diverse cities in Europe, and that is shocking. It’s one of the driving forces behind what we want to do [with Brummiewood],” he said.

“It’s common bloody sense. If you’re in a place with a multi-ethnic demographic, why are you not going to employ the people on your doorstep?”

Knight said he is hopeful his upcoming 2-Tone project, which will focus on the music scene that emerged in Coventry and Birmingham in the late 1970s, will “mythologise that era” in a similar way to how Peaky Blinders created interest around post-first world war Birmingham.

“It’s going to be about people who liked the music and the effects of the music on them. It truly did draw people together across divides and that’s the point of what I want to do,” he said.

“I’ve got the idea of who the characters will be and the problems they’re facing and what I want to try and do is sort of mythologised that era”.



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