River City campaign claims Scots will lose 15 hours of drama

The Herald Scotland

20-05-2025

The union has also warned there is 'no guarantee' that the three new shows - legal drama Counsels, comic thriller Grams and gang warfare series The Young Team - will continue after their initial runs for six episodes each.
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It has highlighted how 33 hours of River City have been made across three blocks of production on the show in the space of 12 months in recent years.
BBC Scotland has said it will be 'moving' the £9 million it currently spends on River City into the three new commissions as part of plans to spend £95 million on Scottish drama over the next three years.
BBC Scotland has announced plans to bring River City to an end in the autumn of 2026. (Image: BBC)
Counsels, Grams and The Young Team were announced after the BBC had already confirmed a number of new made-in-Scotland shows, including the crime family drama Mint, Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd's new series Half Man, which he will star in opposite Jamie Bell, and psychological thriller, which will see Outlander and Karen Pirie star Lauren Lyle in the lead role.
Equity has hit back at the BBC after being accused of spreading 'mistruths' over the potential impact of the loss of River City.
The actors' union had claimed that the long-running soap had attracted more than half a million viewers on average for each episode and is outperforming other drama series.
BBC Scotland insisted the actual audience figure for River City was just 200,000, and pointed out this is well below the numbers who watched other shows like Shetland, Vigil and Granite Harbour last year.
They have also criticised Equity for suggesting that cast and crew would be imported from England to make the new shows, and insisted they would all involve Scottish writers reflecting Scottish culture and voices.
However Equity Scotland official Marlene Curran said BBC Scotland's response to the campaign had merely highlighted a 'refusal to engage with the real issues at play.'
She added: 'Equity's decision to protect jobs, training opportunities and careers in the entertainment industry does not hinge on viewing figures alone.
As we have said from the start, the cancellation of River City will have a disproportionately negative impact on Scottish performers.
'It provides pathways and training opportunities, as well as longer term work, for those who would not be able to enter or sustain a career in an otherwise precarious, London-centric, and often exclusionary industry.
'What's more, the hours of programming proposed for the new drama series that are to 'replace' River City pale in comparison.
'On our calculation, a season of River City comprises 33 hours in total (66 episodes x 30 minutes). In contrast, the hours slated for the three proposed new series combined is 18 (6 episodes x 1 hour x 3 series).
'People in Scotland who pay the BBC license fee are therefore losing at least 15 hours of drama – with no guarantee as to what comes after these series end.'
BBC Scotland has criticised Equity for making 'damaging' claims about the new drama series it had announced and insisted it was 'fully committed' to ensuring that Scottish talent would be hired to work on them.
However Equity has highlighted how two of the three companies making the new dramas are based in London.
Ms Curran said: 'We have had no guarantee from BBC Scotland that they will provide a similar number of training opportunities or jobs as the current level offered by River City.
'As part of its public broadcasting duties, as outlined in the Royal Charter, the BBC has a duty to 'to reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom's nations and regions.'
'We fail to see how the closure of River City lives up to this duty.'
A spokesperson for BBC Scotland said: "As we have always made clear, the decision to end River City is a creative one driven by changing audience habits and declining viewing figures, which have dropped to an average of 200,000 per episode, considerably lower than other BBC dramas.
"Audience patterns have shifted away from long-running serials to short-run dramas so that is where we will be moving our drama investment.
'We are clear that we will be making fewer hours of drama, despite spending more on it.
"However, this is in line with audience expectations - making shorter-run, higher-impact content which attracts larger audiences than long-running formats like River City.
"Due to the complex production requirements of these dramas, the number of weeks cast and crew are employed are often similar – and sometimes greater - as the longer-running formats.
'The BBC in Scotland is open for business and remains committed to reflecting Scottish voices in drama. This is about value for money for the audience. We are not cutting our drama spend in Scotland – in fact, we will increase it to around £95m over the next three years.
'As previously stated, River City training opportunities will remain active for another year until we cease production in April 2026.
"We are actively working with BBC colleagues, the independent companies making our newly announced dramas and others in the industry on future training opportunities.'
BBC Scotland said it was "standard practice" for dramas to be commissioned on a series-by-series basis.
Its spokeswoman added: "The ambition is always to have a returning brand should the audience demand it.
"All companies producing our three new dramas – Counsels, Grams, The Young Team - have Scottish bases and Scottish based senior editorial figures. All shows have Scottish senior creatives.
"Many Scottish companies have HQs elsewhere including BBC Studios who make River City who have their HQ in London. All lead writers on our new dramas are Scottish.
"It's too early to talk about production teams as they haven't crewed up, but these shows will meet the Ofcom criteria.
"The Scottish drama scene and Scottish drama crews are hugely respected both locally and globally so the plan will be to draw on that local expertise for these new shows.
"Scotland makes multiple drama series a year employing multiple Scottish freelancers and this will continue through the new and returning titles."