Acting star Toby Jones has suggested the UK drama sector is going through an existential crisis as its grapples with developments such as the rise of AI and competition from globals streamers as well as growing income barriers for entry into the creative industries.
“There are various existential things affecting the industry at the moment, not least, how actors are going to be able to copyright their work in some way. There seem to be many seismic problems that digital culture is presenting to drama, not theater necessarily, but certainly filmed drama,” said Jones.
The Mr Burton, Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny actor was speaking to Deadline at the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival in France where he received its Virtuoso Award.
Jones, who famously took a pay-cut for his performance in ITV breakout hit Mr Bates vs The Post Office, addressed the debate around the BBC and rival networks ITV and Channel Four no longer being able to afford to bankroll high-end UK drama, in the face of competition from deep-pocketed streamers led by Netflix.
“Having traveled a bit with my job, I’m a paid-up celebrant of terrestrial BBC, and digital BBC and radio BBC. I’ve always worked for the BBC. It’s been my principal employer my whole career,” he said.
“I think it has a dynamic role to play, not just in news, in which it definitely has a role to play, but also in drama. But I can see how it’s just hard to imagine, unless it can find ways to collaborate with streamers, or indeed, with its historical rivals, I don’t know enough about the numbers, but I can just see it theoretically, that that is going to be a problem. And then you wonder about native-made drama.”
The actor has also recently been seen in BBC Wales-backed independent film Mr Burton, playing the Welsh village schoolteacher who recognized the talent of acting legend Richard Burton. He suggested the current pressures on TV dramas could act in a favor of UK feature films.
“The authentic theatrical, the one-off experience could have a premium. People will want to go and be part of that, perhaps. And I could imagine that independent British films might get more of a look in than they’ve had for a long time.”
On whether he would ever take another pay cut, Jones said: “I don’t want to be ennobled by some kind of pay cut thing, but you don’t become an actor because you’re going to be paid well, you become an actor because you’re interested in drama… but people don’t have to worry about me, it’s more about people who are coming into the industry and being paid nothing.”
In its fourth edition, the event is organized by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and kicks off the summer term of its multidisciplinary campus in the picturesque hilltop town of Lacoste in the Luberon Valley.
Quizzed by Deadline on access to creative careers for youngsters from low-income backgrounds in the UK, Jones acknowledged it was becoming increasingly challenging.
“It’s massive problem not least because music, art and drama have been taken off the curriculum, although I believe they are being reinstated but that is the bare minimum of what is required,” he said.
“You need to have a certain amount of income just to be able to be available to audition. So, yes, I’m very, very aware of the problem,” he continued. “I think that in terms of ethnic diversity and gender diversity, our industry does pretty well, it’s certainly revolutionized it, but class diversity, not so much.”
“Class is a big unspoken thing, not least because most stories require a diverse population for them to make sense and no one really wants to see posh actors pretending to be people with whom they really struggle to relate.”
“You’re dependent on youth theaters and great casting directors who are trying to source people who are coming up unconventional routes. There are working class actors, there is no doubt about it, people who have come through National Youth Theatre, but it is a problem that will affect the quality of our drama.”
Jones is currently gearing up to return to the stage for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic in the role of Iago in a West End production of Othello, alongside David Harewood in the titular role.
He will also soon be seen in upcoming ITVX show, Jack Thorne-written The Hack – about the News International phone hacking scandal in which he plays Alan Rusbridger, who was Editor in Chief at The Guardian newspaper at the time.
“I think MobLand is going to go again and I’m part of that,” he adds, revealing a second season of the Paramount+ crime family drama starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine and Helen Mirren.
Quizzed on potential further specials or spin-offs related to cult series Detectorists, in which he co-stars as a metal detector enthusiast alongside creator Mackenzie Crook, Jones says this is highly unlikely.
“Once you’ve maybe found the Holy Grail there’s very little place to go” he said with a laugh, referring to the ending of the 2022 Christmas Special. “The idea of coming back after that would be very hard and also… it’s very British and not very American – but there is a certain virtue to leaving people wanting more.”
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