BBC ‘crisis’ as Peaky Blinders creator hints at corporation’s ‘issues of money’

Steven Knight, who created and wrote the BBC’s popular crime drama Peaky Blinders, said the broadcaster should be more competitive against streaming platforms.

The 65-year-old gave the corporation their recent biggest global hit in Peaky Blinders, based on a fictional crime family in 1920s Birmingham, which ran for six series between 2013 and 2022.

However, Mr Knight’s newest creation, a series about a Victorian boxing ring called A Thousand Blows, will debut on Disney+ this Friday.

He was asked by BBC presenters whether the public service broadcaster, which continues to face backlash for its £169.50 licence fee despite a series of recent below-inflation increases, would be able to make a show like Peaky Blinders today.

“I love to work with the BBC creatively,” he said. “There is no place like it. I think the BBC should be strutting on the world stage amongst the streamers, more so than it does.”

However, he warned: “There are issues of money. I think the BBC has a history of making do and making the best of what they have. I’m working with the BBC on another series now, this just happened to come along from a different direction.”

The broadcaster announced a raft of cost-cutting measures last year, including axing the in-depth interview series Hard Talk and putting hundreds of jobs at risk. Its projected deficit for the 2024/5 financial year is expected to increase to £492million, a year-on-year rise of 40%.

The BBC told lawmakers on the culture, media and sport committee that it was facing “significant and urgent challenges in getting productions across genres made, even those that have been greenlit by our commissioners to move forward into production”.

“Multiple greenlit BBC productions are now stuck in funding limbo and are not progressing to production,” it added, as part of an inquiry on British film and high-end television last month.

A report from the Defund the BBC campaign group recently suggested that the licence fee model was “unsustainable” and that the corporation should instead charge a subscription that would allow it to “compete effectively with its broadcast and streaming rivals”.

Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense group of Conservative MPs, said the broadcaster could be facing an “adapt or die” moment.

The BBC has been contacted for comment.