Annual report 2016-17 www.writersguild.org.uk The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is a trade union registered at 134 Tooley Street, London SE1 2TU Contents REGIONAL AND 3 Acting General BRANCH REPORTS 30 Yorkshire & North East Secretary’s report 24 East Midlands 6 Chair’s report OTHER REPORTS 24 London & South 8 President’s report East 31 Editorial & Communications Treasurer’s report North West Committee 10 25 (Manchester & Lancashire) OBITUARIES CRAFT COMMITTEE North West 25 Remembering REPORTS (Merseyside) 32 WGGB members 12 Books 26 Scotland Comedy 13 27 South West (Cornwall & Film 14 Devon) 16 Radio 27 South West Television (Wessex) 17 Theatre Wales 20 28 West Midlands 22 Videogames 29 CONTACT US JOIN US If you want to contact any of the WGGB Officers, If you are not a WGGB member, and Craft Chairs or Regional Representatives featured would like to join, you can do this online: in this annual report, you can find their details on our website: www.writersguild.org.uk www.writersguild.org.uk/contact/ Or by phone: 020 7833 0777 You can also follow us on Twitter: @TheWritersGuild Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewritersguild 2 WGGB annual report 2016-17 Acting General Secretary’s report It is, of course, an understatement to say that it’s been an eventful year this year – the Brexit result, a change of Presidency in the United States and, as I write, a snap General If EU funding for the creative industries is removed, we want the Government to ring fence money to Election campaign. protect our industries in the same way that they will Despite these developments, and in fact because do so for science and farming. of these developments, it’s business as usual at We’ve been working alongside our sister unions in the Writers’ Guild. Whatever is happening in the other ways, too. For example, we raised concerns industries in which our members work, at a regional about the Making Tax Digital scheme, and urged our or national level in the UK, or on the international members to lobby their MPs. stage, there is always one common theme for us: we As part of its Making Tax Digital (MTD) roadmap, continue to fight for the best deals for writers, and to published in 2015, the Government proposed that protect their rights at every turn. all self-employed workers should submit a quarterly And so it was we found ourselves in Parliament just report in an approved format to HMRC. These before Christmas 2016, talking to MPs, Government reforms were due to be included in the 2017 Finance Ministers, Shadow Ministers, Lords and Baronesses Bill but we were delighted when they were dropped. at the annual Performers’ Alliance All-Party We will be keeping a close eye to make sure the Parliamentary Group (APPG) reception. Along with plans are not revived again after the General Election, our sister unions in the APPG – the Musicians’ Union as we believe they will significantly affect all of our and Equity – we talked about how Brexit will impact members, who are self-employed, often have low on the creative industries and discussed what we can earnings and an irregular and unpredictable work do to protect our members. pattern. The creative industries are worth £84 billion annually We have also joined forces with our sister to the UK and growing. Amongst other things, we’re union BECTU in boycotting the broadcasters’ asking for officials from the DCMS (Department Project Diamond diversity initiative, following the for Culture, Media & Sport) to be seconded to the broadcasters’ refusal to publish equality monitoring Department for Exiting the European Union. data for individual programmes or series. WGGB is part of the Performers’ Alliance All-Party Parliamentary Group alongside Equity and the Musicians’ Union Photo: Joanna Dudderidge www.writersguild.org.uk 3 The initiative, which is managed by the Creative writers whose work has been shown on BBC iPlayer Diversity Network, aims to capture the equality and ITV Player. More is soon to follow. monitoring data of all those working on programmes On top of all this we have our programme of annual commissioned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. awards and events, our ongoing campaigns (Creating The broadcasters have said that they will publish Without Conflict and Free is NOT an Option) and data only for genres and job grades. As it stands we the excellent training we offer to members via FEU believe that this will fail to bring about any significant Training. Details of our day-to-day work can be improvement to under-represented freelances in found in the reports from our Regional and Craft television. Committee reps in the pages that follow. WGGB supports equality monitoring and believes WGGB is shortly to advertise for a General that freelance writers should continue to complete Secretary in accordance with a process laid down by and submit the equality monitoring forms, but trade union legislation, so this will be my last report unless broadcasters reconsider and publish the data as Acting General Secretary. I would like to thank requested, we will not actively support or promote once again my predecessor Bernie Corbett, who Project Diamond, as we have done since the project stepped down as General Secretary in May 2016, started. after nearly two decades of enormous service to Equality and diversity is something very much on our writers. Thanks also go to the Officers of WGGB, agenda. We know, for example, that women write the staff, and members of our Executive Council – 14.6% of UK films and 32% of prime time drama. And without whom none of the above would happen. in theatre women write 31% of new plays. If we want Special mention must go to long-standing member of our industry to flourish we will need fresh stories staff and Assistant General Secretary Anne Hogben to be told from different perspectives. To tackle this who recently left us. we have gained funding for a major gender equality Thank you also of course to all our members. survey which will form the basis of a campaign (you Without our members there would be no union, and can find out full details in the film and TV reports on it is through working together collectively that we pages 14 and 17). achieve our best. We have achieved some significant wins this year. If you are a new member, welcome aboard; if you The Craft Committee reports on pages 12-23 have been around for a while, thank you for your provide all the detail of the pay rises we routinely support over the years. We hope this report gives negotiate for our members. We also signed a major you a taste of our work – and if you would like to get new agreement with the BBC which includes BBC more involved in your union, please do get in touch. Studios for the first time and will have significant impact for children’s and animation writers (see page Ellie Peers 17). At its heart is ensuring writers are protected in Acting General Secretary the digital age, something we also achieve through the Writers Digital Payments scheme, which since it launched in 2015 has paid out over £2 million to The FEU Creating Without Conflict campaign continued in 2016 with a conference in Julian Simpson (pictured November which brought right) was presented the together leaders and HR Tinniswood audio drama staff from the creative award by comedian Lenny industries Henry (pictured left) Photo:Photo: BBC Jess Hurd 4 WGGB annual report 2016-17 WGGB has been lobbying Government Ministers and MPs to ensure writers’ rights are protected during the Brexit negotiations Photo: Shutterstock.com/areporter www.writersguild.org.uk 5 Chair’s report The times they are a-changin’ and we’ve had to say some sad goodbyes this year. Bernie Corbett has stepped down after more than 16 years as our General Secretary, and in the past year as our Finance & Business Manager. Bernie made the Writers’ Guild a We’re also doing our best to ensure that the force to be reckoned with both nationally Government gives the same consideration to the and internationally. His negotiating skills creative industries as they do to Nissan and other gave members many of the agreements and industries. We’ve been in Westminster so much that benefits we enjoy today and we salute him. they could charge us rent. Aside from all that, negotiating in all media and Anne Hogben, our Assistant General Secretary, has dealing with members’ problems, I’m also proud also left WGGB after 18 years of loyal service. She to announce that the Writers’ Guild, supported solved members’ problems and fought for writers’ with funding from ALCS, will be conducting a major rights and will also be very much missed. research project into gender inequality in film and It’s been a time of restructuring and moving TV (see page 14). Current data indicates that there forward. In the interim Ellie Peers has been our is a serious problem with women screenwriters Acting General Secretary and, in the words of Eric being under-represented. We’re also working to Morecambe, you can’t see the join. Ellie has hit rectify diversity issues. the ground running; keeping the union operating As you can see it’s been an eventful year, and I want smoothly and securing great deals in television, to thank the staff for their patience and resilience in radio, theatre and more. trying times. I also want to thank the hard-working In accordance with trade union law, we are now EC, Regional and Craft Chairs and Committees; all in the process of advertising for a permanent of whom are volunteers, giving up precious working General Secretary and we hope we’ll be able to time to make conditions better for all.