ITV will continue to make shows such as Mr Bates despite challenges – drama boss

ITV’s director of drama has said the channel will continue to make shows such as Mr Bates Vs The Post Office despite pressure broadcasters are facing over squeezed commissioning budgets and increased competition from streaming platforms.

The show, detailing how hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting because of a defective IT system, prompted public outrage and helped put the Horizon scandal under the spotlight.

Polly Hill told the Edinburgh TV Festival: “Drama does really, really well for us, and it’s a really important and integral part of ITV.

“We still make the same amount. My priority is finding stories that are right for ITV.

“That is absolutely what I spend most of my time doing, talking to producers and writers about commissioning.

“So funding at that level, at that point, which is when you’re thinking about what ideas to bring to ITV. It’s about making sure it’s realistic, that we can make it.

“If it is a really big budget, take it to a streamer, that’s fine, we can all exist together.

“But if it’s right for us, and if it feels like the right sort of story, we can make it for you… I know it’s much tougher, and there is less opportunities, but we haven’t, so far, not funded the show that we wanted to do.”

Earlier in the year, Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky told BBC current affairs programme Newsnight that American streaming companies have pushed up prices so the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 “can’t afford to make dramas like Wolf Hall anymore” or programmes such as ITV’s Mr Bates and Hillsborough.

Asked if it is true that ITV could not make the show today, Hill said: “I don’t think that’s true.

“When we made Mr Bates it was really hard to make. It took passion from all of us and we really dug in deep to make sure we told that story.

“That was true then, and that’s true now. And we still make them.

“Those four part-ers are hard, but I will continue to commission them while producers still want to make them, and we will try and find a way to make them together.

“Most of what we’re doing is finding dramas that a lot of people want to watch.

“But we also can make certain decisions to make shows that we think (are) important, that we put that story in front of the nation.”

A report from the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee published earlier in the year said the Government needs to ramp up support measures for the UK’s high-quality drama sector while safeguarding the creation of distinctly British content, such as Mr Bates.

The report said the commissioning budgets of PSBs have been “squeezed by the real terms reduction of the BBC licence fee”, as well as a reduction in advertising revenue.