Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA
When British actor and comedian Lenny Henry spoke at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards last March, he made headlines by calling out the “appalling percentage” of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people working in the UK television industry. BAME people currently stand at 5.4% of the broadcasting workforce, a number which has fallen by 30.9% between 2006 and 2012.
Now Henry is joining a diversity action group to advise the BBC as part of their newest initiative to improve the representation of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic community. Other components of the plan include a A £2.1m diversity creative talent fund, a senior leadership development program that will offer six people from BAME backgrounds experience working at top management positions, and an apprenticeship scheme that will involve 20 BAME graduate trainee interns from the Creative Access programme.
Other partners in the initiative include the Clore Leadership Development Programme, Stephen Lawrence Trust, the Mama Youth Project.