Heavyweight TV and film figures back Remain vote
Heavyweight figures in the TV and film business, including Lord Puttnam and Working Title boss Tim Bevan, have come together to support Britain remaining in the European Union.
Some 23 major producers have co-signed a letter, arguing that remaining in the EU was the “right thing to do for our industry”.
Top of the Lake producer Iain Canning, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, Big Talk’s Nira Park, Slumdog Millionaire producer Christian Colson and Debra Hayward and Alison Owen, who recently set up TV indie Monumental Pictures, have all signed the letter.
They highlighted that the EU’s MEDIA and Creative Europe Programme had delivered £100m to UK producers in the past 10 years, which has helped support thousands of creative and technical jobs nationwide.
They noted that one benefit of being a member of the EU was that producers were not subject to quotas or taxes and that equipment travels “carnet free”.
“Being in the EU means that our feature films, our television programmes and our games can travel far more easily across borders because they are not subject to quotas or taxes of any kind in Europe,” they added.
“This significantly increases the earnings of UK audiovisual companies helping them to grow their businesses and to employ far more people on film and TV sets, in special effects houses, in games development, in cinemas and right across all of our industries.”
They concluded that both Conservative and Labour governments over the past 20 years had helped build the TV and film industry into a “global powerhouse” and a vote to remain would allow this to continue.
The group is the latest to come out in favour of a remain vote following similar remarks from Pact, Animation UK and UK production group Argonon.
Source: Broadcast