Lenny Henry calls for public campaign to get more minorities on TV... and describes BBC licence fee boycott as a possible ‘move’

• Culture minister hosting a roundtable with TV figures to discuss diversity
• Henry wants black and ethnic minority people to have money ring-fenced to make specialist programmes
• Henry threatens 'conflict' unless industry listens to those who want change

Lenny Henry wants the public to join his campaign to put more ethnic minorities on the screen.

The former comedian has been engaged in private discussions with Ed Vaizey, the Culture minister, and senior broadcasting figures, Lord Hall, the BBC Director General and Peter Fincham, the chief executive of ITV, to discuss what he sees as a problem.

Henry has been campaigning on the issue for six years and is hopeful change is imminent. He said: ‘There will be a call to arms. Nothing happens without conflict and this is our time to stop moaning to ourselves and to take the argument public.’

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Campaigner: Lenny Henry wants to see more diversity on television

A meeting called by Mr Vaizey for 50 TV industry figures, including Henry, has been brought forward.

Henry wants the public to force politicians to make the change. He said: ‘All of those people in the audience who watch those shows and complain that there aren’t enough black and Asian [people], and gay and women and people with disabilities and transgender… they need to start lobbying, to start writing letters, they need to start emailing.

 

‘At some point soon there’s going to be a campaign and we want everybody to get behind it, write letters to parliament, write letters to government, write letters to your MP and say we think it’s time there was a change.’

Henry, 55, is now probably best known to television audiences for advertising a chain of budget hotels. He first came to the public's attention in 1975 when he was a teenage impressionist on the ITV talent show New Faces, hosted by Derek Hobson.

He delighted audiences with his impersonations of, among others, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em's Frank Spencer and Liberal MP, author and TV dog food salesman Clement Freud.

Henry then worked on the LWT sitcom The Fosters and joined Chris Tarrant on Tiswas. In the 1980s, Henry was given his own show by the BBC. He later starred in the BBC sitcom Chef but his television career has waned in recent years and his most regular appearance is on hotel adverts.

The authoritative website imdb.com has no television credits for him this year and only two for 2013, both on chat shows.

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Once a TV regular, Lenry Henry first came to public prominence on the Derek Hobson-hosted talent show New Faces (right, seen impersonating Frank Spencer) in 1975. He is now best known to television viewers for advertising a chain of budget hotels

He claims that black and ethnic minority people should have money ring-fenced to make specialist programmes.

Simone Pennant, the founder of the TV Collective, an organisation developed to ‘support visible diverse talent in the UK creative media industry’, said that if Henry’s plan is not acted upon then minority groups should consider boycotting the BBC’s licence fee, if plans to decriminalise it come to fruition.

She said: ‘You cannot continue to invest in something you don’t get anything back from. If there’s not something on the table after those talks and Lenny Henry’s paper has not been acted on, the stance we would be taking is to launch a campaign to start boycotting the licence fee. The question is “Are we getting value for money?” – maybe it’s time we stopped paying the licence fee.’

‘The issue of ethnic diversity is a really hot one in broadcasting at the moment,’ said Tim Dams, the editor of Televisual magazine. ‘If the licence fee is decriminalised then the BBC is going to have to work harder to ensure that it does represent every single kind of person, faith and group in the UK to make sure they and their lifestyles are reflected.’

Henry, who made a speech on diversity in television at Bafta last month, said that while he is not advocating non-payment of the licence fee, added: ‘It’s a move isn’t it?’

He said: ‘There’s a degree of black and Asian eyeballs that are moving away from terrestrial television. Broadcasters should be worried about that.’

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Tory MPs Nadine Dorries and Ed Vaizey, the Culture secretary: He told The Independent: 'More must be done to improve the numbers of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds working in film, TV and the arts'

He also said he had been encouraged by his talks with Mr Vaizey and broadcasting bosses. ‘When I met Tony Hall at the BBC he said “Let’s talk at the end of April”,’ he said. ‘Tony Hall wants to be seen as leading from the front and the BBC needs to lead from the front because they’re the main game in town. If the BBC decides they are going to do something everybody’s going to follow.’

Last night, Mr Vaizey told The Independent: ‘More must be done to improve the numbers of people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds working in film, TV and the arts. Industry leaders need to be more accountable for driving up the numbers employed in their sectors.

'I met leading figures from the industry in January to facilitate a discussion on what can be done to break down the barriers that still exist. I look forward to hosting a follow-up roundtable before the summer to see what progress has been made.’

When approached by MailOnline, the BBC said that since the matter concerns the whole industry and not just the corporation, it would not be commenting on Henry's remarks.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608492/Lenny-Henry-calls-boycott-BBC-licence-fee-unless-corporation-diversifies-gets-black-ethnic-people-television.html#ixzz2zNJwMYDq