'Great for the Refugee Quota!' BBC Doc Accusation Rocks the U.K.
'They took my footage and never paid me. And won every award': A migrant's revelation raises new questions about onscreen diversity
Viewers will remember Hassan Akkad as the face of Exodus, a docuseries which aired on the BBC in 2016 and then on PBS’ Frontline in the United States. Akkad, an English teacher from Syria who was just 27 at the time, sought to flee persecution in Damascus after getting involved in the Arab Spring protests against President Bashar al-Assad. He used a GoPro to film his failed journey to Greece aboard an inflatable dinghy that set off from Turkey, where he had migrated temporarily before trying to reach Europe. The camera rolled as the heaving boat, organized by human smugglers, rapidly began taking on water, and young men — including Akkad — jumped in the sea to lighten the load.
This unforgettable scene is, for many, the enduring image of Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, which won BAFTAs and International Emmy and Royal Television Society awards (Akkad delivered speeches at many of them).
Now there’s a different lasting image from Exodus, and it also reveals an ugly truth, this time about TV’s exploitative business. Last week during a panel discussion at the Opening Knowledge across Research and Entertainment (OKRE) Summit in London — an event devoted to the social impact of entertainment — Akkad delivered a bombshell revelation about what’s been one of the U.K.’s most celebrated programs of the last decade.
Akkad shocked audiences at the OKRE Summit when he shared that he was neither paid nor credited for his contributions to Exodus by the producers. When he later tried to leverage the show’s success and make inroads into the industry, all anyone wanted from him were more stories about refugee trauma.
“Everyone approached me and wanted to make something about refugees,” Akkad, who recently directed his first short film, Matar, told the crowd. “I was like, ‘Guys, I have other ideas,’ and they’re like, ‘Nah’ . . . People talk about being nice and inclusive, but they care about their diversity quota. ‘Hassan is a refugee and Muslim — great for the refugee quota!’ But when it comes to doing it, people don’t put words into action.”
The panel, titled “Beyond Drama: Lessons From Representation in Entertainment” delivered even more hard truths — not only about the pigeonholing of new creators from diverse backgrounds but also the mind-boggling hurdles faced by executives trying to get “edgy” shows across the line.
For every Dreaming Whilst Black, a groundbreaking comedy about a Black British screenwriter trying to make it (and which later aired on Showtime and Paramount+ in the United States), there seem to be five forgettable crime or period dramas written and produced by the usual suspects. Stunningly, none of the BBC’s new slate of scripted shows, for example, involves a production company led by a non-white person.
On-screen representation is no better. As I reported last month, the most recent data from Diamond, which monitors British TV diversity, reported that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic on-screen representation across BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Paramount, Sky and UKTV between 2021 and 2022 was 23.3 percent, up slightly from 22.7 percent between 2018 and 2019. (The U.K. is now 18 percent non-white.)
Despite Britain’s innumerable schemes and initiatives to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), the country’s TV still tends to see the same elite group of writers and producers scoring the big deals. (This is an echo of the American experience, as well, where ineffectual DEI programs have prompted both backsliding to the old status quo as well as backlash, but U.S. television generally offers more perspectives.)
As the conversation this past week at OKRE showcased, these fights are just getting started. In this week’s Series Business, you’ll learn:
About Akkad’s detailed experience on Exodus
The first response to his charges from Exodus producer Keo Films
Why it’s time to shake up the role of consultants who advise on the authenticity of cultural ethnic portrayals on TV
Why “no-brainer” commissions like Drag Race U.K. took ages to greenlight
Why diversity in execs who greenlight and order series creates change in content slates
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