Two Bristol organisations, South West Screen and Equity’s Bristol and West General Branch are campaigning to keep production of the BBC’s flagship Saturday night show firmly in the West Country.

Under the BBC Charter and their Network Supply Review, the BBC gave a core commitment to move a significant amount of production outside of the M25 area and to relocate this production to the Nations and English regions. This has led to a welcome increase in facilities in Salford in the north and BBC Wales in Cardiff.

However, rather than just moving productions from within the M25 area, it appears that the BBC intends to relocate existing regional productions into these “super-hub” areas, despite local support for the programmes and many years of continuous success.

Two long running drama series – Casualty based in Bristol and Doctors based in Birmingham – are at risk of being moved to Cardiff and Salford respectively under the Network Supply Review.

For over 20 years, the basing of Casualty in Bristol has led to the growth of a thriving drama production economy for the entire region. Bristol is now home to a rich mix of talent and creative services including strong post-production facilities, excellent graphics companies and a much diversified and flourishing independent sector.

South West Screen have commissioned an independent assessment of the economic impact of the BBC’s proposal to move production of Casualty from Bristol to Cardiff, and investigate the potential impact on the production base in Bristol and the surrounding area. They need your help by clicking on the following link and completing a short online questionnaire: www.attentionalpanel.com/freelance.asp

Meanwhile, The Bristol and West General Branch of Equity’s ‘Keep Casualty in Bristol’ campaign has gained strong momentum and has led to the Equity Council formulating an Early Day Motion to be considered by MPs at Westminster. Early Day Motion (EDM) 2095, “BBC Productions and English Regions” states that relocating production of Casualty would: • Cause a loss of jobs of the highly skilled technicians based in the region, and decrease the work and training opportunities for locally based writers, technicians, and actors. • Damage the local economy in supply and training that links and interacts with regional production facilities. Click here to see the complete EDM and to see the support the motion has gained so far.

It is vital that as many media professionals as possible write to their MP, urging them to support Regional Production and to sign this EDM.

You can locate your MP at: www.writetothem.com

There is more information at South West Screen and Bristol and West General Branch of Equity