More ‘risky’ making real-life dramas on BBC than ITV, says Happy Valley producer

An executive producer of BBC hit series Happy Valley says that it can be more “risky” for the corporation to make real-life dramas.

Nicola Shindler, who also worked on Channel 4’s It’s A Sin and Queer As Folk, as well as 1996 factual drama Hillsborough, appeared on an Edinburgh TV Festival panel discussing the success of ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which pushed the Horizon IT scandal to the top of the news agenda.

The chief executive with Quay Street Productions told the Scottish media event: “This is absolutely no disrespect to the BBC, but I think sometimes they find it harder because they are more interrogated.

“So everything they do is so interrogated, so you can take more risks sometimes on ITV, but also, I think an audience will know that they’re going to get something very entertaining at the same time, because that’s (their) job.

“I mean, it might be entertaining in a very raw way, in a very emotional way, but they know that they’re going to watch something which is made to be watched by an audience, rather than just to be lectured.

“So I do think that’s really important when you bring an audience those things.”

Head of ITV drama Polly Hill called Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which led to former prime minister Rishi Sunak taking action on wrongfully prosecuted subpostmasters, “the most ITV story”.

She said: “I said this before it went out and was a big hit. I kept saying to everyone, it’s the most ITV story that we’ve got … it’s absolutely, for me, what ITV is, and also, I love factual drama, and I’ve made lots of them while I’ve been on ITV.”

Ms Hill said that the upcoming ITV drama on the blood scandal needed time to get under way, and that they had not realised what the reaction would be.

The blood scandal series, written by Peter Moffat, known for Criminal Justice, will dramatise the experiences of those with blood disorders who were infected during the 1970s and 1980s with HIV and hepatitis C.

The team behind the ITV drama previously revealed that they used emails from Post Office managers to ensure they could say it was a “true story”.

Elsewhere, Patrick Spence, executive producer at AC Chapter One, who worked on the ITV show, said he thought Mr Bates Vs The Post Office would break even in a “few years”.

He added: “I think it’s very close to it. But given that it was such a huge hit in this country, you’d sort of hope. I made a show called Litvinenko, which sold like hot cakes – I mean, it really did, it sold a lot. And Mr Bates will probably pay its own way.”

Earlier, during a session on soaps former EastEnders star Rakhee Thakrar recalled how a stillbirth storyline, about her character Shabnam Masood going through baby loss saved lives.

The Sex Education actress says a midwife had told her calls to her hospital department tripled after the episode aired in which she found out her baby was stillborn.

She said: “And she (midwife) said that on the Friday night, the calls to the department tripled because they’d seen the episode, and over the weekend, and she was a very diligent midwife, and she said that ‘If you call me, I’ll bring you in to check you.’

“So she did and as a result several of the other babies, I think, were in distress and they managed to deliver them early and they were okay.”

“Soaps literally save lives,” she continued. “It reaches people in such a personal way, and people who are not served always by the bigger shows.. So I think it reaches people who really need it and deserve it.”