DIVERSITY
& INDUSTRY
In 2020, through the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media and Diversity, I undertook a research project to look at how diverse and inclusive UK Post Production Sound was.
My research paper, conducted throughout August and September 2020, examined the highest rated TV shows across the Autumn period of 2019 on BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and
Sky One and the breakdown of diversity across the key post-production sound team roles. It showed, amongst other concerning data, that out of 55 available job roles only 1 person was mixed race and only 6 were women.
In 2025 I wanted to see if any improvement had been made.
This follow up paper was conducted throughout August 2024 to January 2025, was a follow up to the Diversity in UK post-production Sound report published in 2020,
funded by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.
The aim of repeating this research process was to see whether the industry had achieved progress,
stayed the same, or regressed in terms of the diversity of the post-production sound workforce.
In order to get a sense of the wider landscape, the research examined the top 15 highest rated UK TV shows (with post-production sound based in the UK), across the same channels as before, across a 3 month period (August, September and October 2024) to identify the gender,
racial and class diversity across the key post-production sound team roles.This time out of 67 available job roles only 8 identified as women and only 2 identified as being from an underrepresented racial background.
In 2025, I also worked with The Film and TV Charity and The TV Human Rights forum as a consultant on a new paper which looked at illegal working practises within the Post Production sector. The paper was titled "Let’s fix it in Post"
The research found that those working in post production have their human rights adversely impacted in a range of different and sometimes very troubling ways, and that
the responsibility for these impacts often sits with commissioners and productions.
While some experiences are the same as those working in other parts of production, there are some unique aspects of post production that compound issues and make
them particularly challenging or different.