“File on 4” – “Acts of Abuse”
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BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION RADIO 4 TRANSCRIPT OF “FILE ON 4” – “ACTS OF ABUSE” CURRENT AFFAIRS GROUP TRANSMISSION: Tuesday 6th July 2021 2000 - 2040 REPEAT: Sunday 11th July 2021 1700 - 1740 REPORTER: Livvy Haydock PRODUCER: Helen Clifton EDITOR: Carl Johnston PROGRAMME NUMBER: 21VQ6379LT0 - 1 - THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. “FILE ON 4” Transmission: Tuesday 6th July 2021 Repeat: Sunday 11th July 2021 Producer: Helen Clifton Reporter: Livvy Haydock Editor: Carl Johnston MUSIC BETH: I now know it was sexual assault, and I know 100%. It’s taken me a long time to realise that and to say it. The effect that it had on me afterwards - not wanting to audition, wanting to leave the industry. I just felt like I wouldn’t be believed. HAYDOCK: Sexual harassment, abuse and bullying in plain sight, widespread, but often unchallenged within our TV and film industry. RAW: The fact that we almost can’t even go and do our job without thinking, oh gosh, if I get left in a room with somebody, is something going to happen? That shouldn’t be something we have to think about. HAYDOCK: File on 4 has heard from hundreds in the business who say many who are bullied and abused are terrified to complain, because they’re scared of losing their jobs. BEALE: I was pretty scared when I started talking about this. Actually, I had a real bout of anxiety about it, because I thought maybe I’m ending my career just by raising my head above the parapet. The fear is real. - 2 - BETH: People are so frightened to say anything negative. We’re disposable. There are so many out of work actors, you’re made to feel that you can be instantly replaced. HAYDOCK: Years after the #MeToo movement opened up a worldwide conversation about a toxic culture within the industry, there’s finally more momentum behind a campaign for change - but is it enough? CHILDS: We need to be clear about tracking reports and make sure that serial abusers are called out. We want the industry to invest in safeguarding officers on set to ensure that their workforce are protected and supported properly MUSIC EXTRACT FROM BAFTA SPEECH CLARKE: My journey in this business has been a battle at times. And as I stand here right now, I know a lot of the work I have done is not BAFTA-worthy. I think this is about the journey. HAYDOCK: In April this year, the actor and director Noel Clarke was presented with the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award at the BAFTAs. CLARKE: This is for the underrepresented. Anyone who sits at home believing that they can achieve more. HAYDOCK: It marked a career high. Previous recipients include David Puttnam, John Hurt and Kenneth Branagh. He’d come a long way from the council estate in London’s Ladbroke Grove where he’d grown up, rising to prominence playing Mickey Smith in the Dr Who TV series on BBC One. CLARKE: Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re not good enough. You are. And sometimes you’ll feel like you don’t deserve it. You do. [Applause] - 3 - HAYDOCK: Noel Clarke’s jubilation though was short-lived. Even as he gave his acceptance speech, BAFTA had become aware of serious allegations about his behaviour. And less than three weeks later, the Guardian newspaper published a story in which twenty women accused him of groping, harassment and bullying. EXTRACTS FROM NEWS BULLETINS NEWSREADER 1: On to the actor Noel Clarke, who’s been accused of sexual harassment and bullying by twenty women who’ve worked with him in the past, all of which he strongly denies ….. NEWSREADER 2: The film and TV industry has moved rapidly to break ties with the actor, director and screenwriter Noel Clarke, after he was accused of sexual harassment and bullying … HAYDOCK: Days later, he issued a statement saying he was ‘deeply sorry’ and was ‘seeking professional help’ but he strongly denied any sexual misconduct or criminal wrongdoing. EXTRACT FROM NEWS BULLETIN NEWSREADER 3: Noel Clarke has said that he vehemently denies any allegations. He has said in a statement that in a twenty-year career, I have put inclusivity and diversity at the forefront of my work and have never had a complaint against me. I intend to defend myself against these false allegations. HAYDOCK: The Metropolitan Police have spoken to a number of women who have subsequently come forward. They are in the process of assessing the incidents that have been reported to them, to establish if any offences have been committed. The BBC says it will investigate any specific allegations it receives. MUSIC - 4 - HAYDOCK: Whatever the outcome of those investigations - whatever the truth - the allegations against Noel Clarke have opened up a huge conversation on the culture within the British television and film industry. This programme has heard from hundreds of industry insiders, who talk about widespread sexual harassment and bullying. Actors, producers, set designers, wardrobe staff, runners - people from almost every profession in the industry - describe an environment which can be unsafe, especially for women. File on 4 has worked with the broadcasting and entertainment union, BECTU, to gather testimony from their members on what they’ve experienced. These are their words spoken by actors. WOMAN: Bullying, persistent badgering, being sworn at, misogynistic comments. There is no HR to report to. You cannot report incidents to some random production person and then blindly hope that the matter will be dealt with appropriately. WOMAN 2: He started trying to pull my clothes off, and I pushed him away, and then he said, ‘If you tell anyone, I’m going to send someone over to your house to rape you.’ But when I spoke to other women in the company, they all advised me not to, and said that I’ll be the one that will be fired, because I’m not valuable and he is the writer. WOMAN 3: I cried in the car on the way home often. I feel diminished and ashamed not to be standing up for myself. It was relentless and hideous. MUSIC HAYDOCK: Thirteen thousand BECTU members from both the independent sector and the BBC were approached, and more than fourteen hundred responded. That’s only just over one in ten, so it’s not a scientific survey, but it does give us a snapshot of what’s happening within the industry. 80% of respondents were freelance, but given the transient nature of the industry, that comes as no great surprise. What is shocking though, is that we received 44 reports of sexual assault and 13 reports of rape, and three out of four said they’d experienced some form of bullying, harassment or sexual abuse. - 5 - WOMAN: I have just spent the last hour constructing a very carefully worded statement covering three separate incidences of sexual harassment and verbal abuse from male and female bosses, but even now I cannot risk sharing these horrible stories just in case it affects future work. I fell through every furlough scheme over lockdown - I absolutely have to keep working. WOMAN 2: I was 22 and in my first television job in a television newsroom. Another female colleague warned me to be careful about sitting anywhere near one of my male reporters. Predictably enough, he pestered me for what seemed like ages. I can only describe the tone as bullying, but really horrible, sexual bullying. He did not touch me, but at one point he picked up a Mars bar and held it right in front of my face, describing in graphic detail which one of my orifices he wanted to insert it into. HAYDOCK: Even when those affected do report what’s happened to them, it’s often the case that nothing happens. No surprise then that more than two-thirds of those who told us they’d been on the receiving end of this kind of behaviour didn’t report it. And only a quarter of those who did, saw any formal action taken. BETH: I went to the audition, which on paper looked very legitimate. I thought I’d done a bit of research, but evidently I hadn’t done enough. HAYDOCK: For reasons that will quickly become apparent, we’re not calling this actor by her real name. We’ll call her Beth. These are her words, but they’re spoken by somebody else. BETH: I got there, there was supposed to be a casting director, another actor and the director, and it was just the director - the so-called director - at a building in the city. When I got into the room, he apologised for the casting director and the other actor not being there. We started to read a script, but immediately he sat on a sofa and he said, ‘Can you come and straddle me,’ and I said, ‘I’m not going to do that.’ With hindsight, I would have gotten out quicker, so that happened, and I said, no. Then I started reading. He asked me to turn away, which I did, and then he came over, he ran his hand down my back, like grabbed me underneath and whacked me on my bum. That point, I just moved and shouted at him, ‘You can’t do that, don’t ever touch me. At first I didn’t really - 6 - BETH cont: question the fact that the other people weren’t there, but then obviously when he told me to sit on him, the alarm bells were definitely ringing.