Fresh from his BAFTA award, Patrick Spence, executive producer for Mr. Bates vs The Post Office discusses how the series was commissioned, why it was a success, how it was funded, the decline of certain TV drama genres, the crisis in the industry, the need of government support: levy vs tax breaks, the impact of tariffs, regional production, the streamers’ role and his upcoming project The Hack.

“If I was offered Mr. Bates vs the Post Office now as a prospective development, I would not take it on."

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Rozina Breen is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and formerly head of news at BBC Five Live and BBC North.

A speaker at the recent Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit, Rozina discusses the event, the growing challenges facing journalism under the Trump administration, the importance of local and regional journalism, the BBC and the role of partnerships, the importance of fact based reporting and why TBIJ is necessary.

“” The fire has always been there. We just haven't been paying attention.” And my belief is that there are fires in almost every constituency across the UK right now, and investigative journalism in the UK is much needed.”

Listen to all our episodes here: https://podfollow.com/beebwatch

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Jonathan Dimbleby is a veteran British broadcaster known for his long-form interviews on BBC and ITV, and as host of Radio 4’s Any Questions.

In this episode, we discuss his latest book on World War II, the use of a journalistic background in writing history, challenging historical myths, the ‘special relationship’ between the US and Britain, the rise of populism and parallels between current political trends and historical threats to democracy, the critical role of public service broadcasting, the decline of the long-form interview, and why, after an organiser of a meeting of Jews associated with Belsen extended an invitation to Jonathan to speak, “we ended up mutually agreeing that I wouldn't speak at this occasion.”

Listen to all our episodes here: https://podfollow.com/beebwatch

To support our journalism and receive a weekly blog sign up now for £1.99 per month (NB we only charge for one creation per month): www.patreon.com/BeebWatch/membership

Or if you'd rather make a one-off payment (which doesn’t entitle you to the blog) please use our crowdfunding page: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/roger-boltons-beeb-watch-podcast

@beebwatch.bsky.social

X @BeebRoger

Instagram: rogerboltonsbeebwatch

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email: roger@rogerboltonsbeebwatch.com

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.