Fears Emerge Over Future Of British Film & High-End TV Inquiry Due To General Election

Max Goldbart

24 May 2024 at 9:36 am·2-min read

Fears over the future of the UK’s film and high-end TV inquiry have emerged due to the upcoming general election.

Culture, Media & Sport Committee (CMSC) chair Caroline Dinenage has written today to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer urging the CMSC’s “successor committee” to keep up its work exploring the issues impacting the industry.

More from Deadline

When a general election is called, committees such as the CMS are dissolved. Once a new government is in place, a different chair and group of cross-party MPs will be appointed to the new committee but it is under no obligation to continue the work of the previous one.

“We hope that the next government will continue to champion and support all facets of our screen industries,” wrote Dinenage. “Given the huge value that film and HETV contributes, and the deep questions that remain about its resilience, we strongly urge our successor committee to revisit the evidence we have received and continue scrutiny of this vital industry.”

The inquiry launched last summer and has heard evidence from the likes of former Amazon Europe boss Georgia Brown, Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and the CEOs of Vue and Studiocanal, discussing issues ranging from cinemas to funding to the skills crisis.

Dinenage’s letter flagged the CMSC’s support for the landmark indie film tax credit, which has just been brought in. “This move, widely welcomed by the sector demonstrates the importance of parliament looking in depth at the needs of this sector at this time,” she added.

Dinenage said investment in the sector had “boomed” after the pandemic but “fell dramatically last year leaving studios empty, crews out of work and cinemas questioning how to programme their screens.”

The general election is taking place July 4 and lawmakers are currently rushing last-minute legislation through parliament, including the UK’s long-awaited Media Bill, which is expected to be sealed in the next few hours.

Best of Deadline

Business Insider
Russian troops surrender to an elite brigade as the Kharkiv front holds, Ukraine says
In a video released by Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade, Russian troops can be seen surrendering in Vovchansk.
The Telegraph
David Cameron is a disgrace to Britain
Why would anybody trust the Conservative Party to make the big decisions about the future of Britain, when they can’t even agree on what to do about Nigel Farage?
The Telegraph
Are you ‘far-Right’? Take our quiz!
We hear the term “far-Right” a lot these days. Or at least, we do if we get our news from the BBC, The Guardian or prominent Left-wing pundits. But what precisely do they mean by it? Unfortunately, they rarely say. They tend to just call a party, politician or group of voters “far-Right”, and leave it at that.
Business Insider
A Russian tank stuck in a large crater became a sitting duck for Ukraine's drones, a video appears to show
A video released by Ukraine's 68th Jaeger Brigade appears to show a Russian tank falling into a crater and exploding under Ukrainian fire.
Sky News
Vladimir Putin has had another bad week – and eyes are now on the Ukraine peace summit
It has been another bad week for Vladimir Putin. In direct response to his unprovoked invasion, Ukraine has this week been able to sign a 10-year security pact with America - a bridge to its eventual membership of NATO, even if that is still a very, very long way away. EU accession talks for Ukraine will also begin before the end of the month.
The National
Huge poll predicts every seat in Scotland in General Election
A FRESH poll has predicted the result of every seat in the General Election, with the Tories set to retain just one seat in Scotland.
The Telegraph
Labour to slap higher council tax on homes with big gardens, say Tories
Home owners with gardens will pay higher council tax under plans being considered by Labour, it is claimed.
The Telegraph
France is on the brink of all-out civil conflict
As some 500,000 Left-wingers marched in France’s cities yesterday, shouting anti-Fascist slogans, never had Lenin’s phrase seemed more apposite: “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
AFP
Trump boasts of cognitive test, then flubs doctor's name
Donald Trump is so proud of a cognitive assessment he took while president that he boasted about it in a speech Saturday, while attacking what he claims is US President Joe Biden's lack of mental acuity.As part of his attack on what he says is the 81-year-old Biden's declining mental acuity, Trump told the laughing crowd in Detroit that the president had been lost while at the G7 in Italy, turning "to look at trees," while other world leaders were looking at a parachutist who'd just landed in an
The Telegraph
The Right should fear Rachel Reeves more than Keir Starmer
In one of the most famous psychological experiments of the past 30 years, Harvard-educated researchers Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons asked a group of young people, three in black T-shirts, three in white, to pass a basketball around a confined space.
Evening Standard
Rishi Sunak given a ‘secret briefing’ as Putin nuclear submarine Kazan detected off the coast of Scotland
A Kremlin spokesman denied there was any reason for concern
Business Insider
Russia's war in Ukraine began in Crimea. It could end there, too, defense experts say.
Ukrainian forces have ramped up attacks on key targets in Crimea and the Black Sea in recent months.
The Telegraph
Disappointing end to Ukraine summit as allies agree to watered-down peace declaration
Kyiv and its allies agreed on a watered-down declaration at a peace summit in Switzerland that backed Ukraine’s territorial integrity but failed to lay out steps to end the war.
The Telegraph
Labour council ‘unfairly’ fined thousands of drivers £2.6m
A Labour council which “unfairly” fined thousands of motorists millions of pounds is being urged to issue refunds after a mistake in the wording on its penalty charge notices (PCNs) meant they were “legally void”.
Sky News
Fresh poll predicts Tories will win just 72 seats in next parliament
Two polls published today spell bad news for Rishi Sunak, with one showing a drop of four points and the other that his party is on course to pick up just 72 seats. A poll by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed the Tories down four points to just 21% of the vote - the lowest by that pollster since the dying days of Theresa May's premiership in early 2019. In a boost for Nigel Farage, the poll showed Reform UK up three points with 13% of the vote.
The Telegraph
The toxic legacy of lockdown is destroying our political system
I have never known a general election like this one. I cannot remember a national campaign in my lifetime in which the only question for voters was who they hated less.
The Telegraph
Letters: Once-loyal Tories wish to see Conservatism reborn after years of Blairite betrayal
SIR – As a long-term member of the Conservative Party, I cannot wait to see the back of this totally incompetent Government. These Blairites must never be allowed to return. There are a few good MPs, like Penny Mordaunt, and I can only hope that they will join together with Nigel Farage to form a new, invigorated and competent Conservative Party. Meanwhile, I’ll vote for Reform UK. David Bowen Lyme Regis, Dorset
Evening Standard
OPINION - Tom Newton Dunn: The race for Tory leader has begun already — and it's a 16-way brawl
“The problem with my dear fellow Tory MPs is they all think they’re Winston Churchill,” a weary Cabinet minister told me this week. Like many in the Conservative Party now, the minister has given up hope over the general election result. It’s the next election campaign he’s fixated on — the Tory leadership contest that will start three weeks from today.
The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war – live: 3 civilians killed in Donetsk blast as Putin makes ‘absurd attempt to seduce West’
Draft of summit’s final declaration calls for Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be respected
The New York Times
The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started
Opponents of Donald Trump are drafting potential lawsuits in case he is elected in November and carries out mass deportations, as he has vowed. One group has hired a new auditor to withstand any attempt by a second Trump administration to unleash the IRS on it. Democratic-run state governments are even stockpiling abortion medication. A sprawling network of Democratic officials, progressive activists, watchdog groups and ex-Republicans has been taking extraordinary steps to prepare for a potenti

Latest stories