EXCLUSIVE: The BBC is facing a dilemma over whether to push on with a new series from Jamie Roberts, director of the controversial Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
Deadline has learned that Roberts is making a new doc for the BBC, this time about the L.A. wildfires, for the same current affairs commissioning team that greenlit How to Survive a Warzone. The inception of the L.A. fires show pre-dates the airing and subsequent fallout from How to Survive a Warzone, we understand.
Now, the corporation must decide whether it continues working with Roberts after last week criticizing him for failing to disclose that a young narrator in How to Survive a Warzone was the son of a Hamas Minister. When this news emerged, and under mounting pressure to comment, the BBC said it “had not been informed of this information” by the independent producers behind the doc – a reference to Roberts and his HOYO Films, representing a near unprecedented laying of the blame at the feet of a production company for an editorial mishap. The show, which was co-directed by Palestinian filmmaker Yousef Hammash, has since been removed from iPlayer, but there are growing concerns that other contributors had links to Hamas, which is proscribed as a terror group by the UK government.
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The BBC declined to comment on the new wildfires show or whether it will continue working with Roberts. Roberts – who has made a number of BBC shows down the years – did not respond to a comment request from Deadline. It is no surprise that the BBC is keen to make a show about the wildfires, a huge natural disaster that generated headlines for days and caused 200,000 to evacuate their homes. Rival Channel 4 has already aired fast-turnaround doc Inferno: LA on Fire from ITN Productions.
After news of the narrator’s Hamas lineage broke last week, the BBC initially appeared to try and put distance between the narrator and his father, before subsequently saying it hadn’t been given the full information and adding a disclaimer. A group of 45 Jewish TV executives who penned an open letter to the BBC led by the corporation’s ex-content boss Danny Cohen accused the broadcaster of “throwing the producer of the documentary under the bus” when it chided Roberts. “Yesterday the BBC claimed they had full editorial control.’ Today it is someone else’s fault,” added Cohen late last week.
Under further pressure, How to Survive a Warzone was removed from iPlayer, while yesterday even Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was weighing in on the growing row.
Sources have been speculating to us all week as to how the BBC was not aware of the Hamas connection, with some thinking it possible that connections were missed because of the complications around foreign journalists not being able to access Gaza. One said he was “shocked” that the BBC would not have been involved enough with the editorial to have been aware prior to its airing.
The post BBC Faces Dilemma Over New L.A. Wildfires Doc Made By ‘Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone’ Director Jamie Roberts appeared first on Deadline.
