I recently met up with James, Adrian, Lavantai, and Adrian who were all from Black African or Black British Caribbean backgrounds and they knew exactly what they liked and didn’t like on TV.
They have founded the Manchester-based group called Fathers' Against Violence and they were fantastic.
I felt privileged to be in the room with them.
I am a BBC Accredited facilitator so when the chance came up to return to Manchester to find out more about our audiences I was very happy to help.
I spent 8 years in Manchester until 2002– including being Editor of the Commonwealth Games Radio Station– so it was good to be back.
At the workshop, organised by BBC Outreach and Corporate Responsibility, we talked to different groups of people to get a take on what they think of current output and to pitch a drama idea to us.
We think we are in control of what people watch – but we’re not.
They knew their media and knew what they liked and just wouldn’t put up with rubbish.
As a group they were all over US TV, which they thought represented black people on screen better than we do in the UK in general and on the BBC in particular.
However, they loved dramas like The Wire and Luther.
They had strong feelings about identity which was very important to them, and they wanted to see the real Black British/Caribbean/African story told with positive as well as negative portrayals.
Family was very important as was positivity and success, especially for children.
When it came to the drama pitch I realised that one of the group, James, had suffered a family tragedy when his 16 year-old son Giuseppe was shot dead in 2009 when he was just 16.
They said that a programme about the complexity of 'exiting' gangs safely is long overdue, and they wanted stories about positive action in communities, not glamorisation of gang culture.
And they also wanted to explore the theme of forgiveness which came from James’ own true life tragic story.
I found the whole session really useful and it got me thinking about my own output.
It has given me a fresh perspective. It’s easy to become complacent if we don’t make sure we are connecting with our audiences.
*BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.
We help programme makers produce content which harder to reach audiences will find relevant and enjoy.
