Hit television show The Traitors has raised skill levels among BBC Scotland’s production staff that could lure other programmes north of the border, its director told a committee of MPs.
Hayley Valentine said 70 BBC Scotland staff worked on series four, up from 60 who contributed to the previous series, and several were taking on more senior roles.
“Some started as researchers and have been brought through the system,” she told the Scottish Affairs Committee sitting in Glasgow.
Ms Valentine confirmed that the series had helped develop skills among Scottish production staff and would help with future commissions.
“Scotland did not make this genre for a long time,” she said. “We are not short of talent but we did not have a ready-made skills-set and we have developed it.”
She added: “Now, when another programme comes along like this, people will say Scotland can do it.”
There had been criticism of the low level of local input into the making of The Traitors which is filmed at Ardross Castle in the Highlands and is classed as a Scottish production.
The BBC is required to spend at least 8% of its expenditure making shows in Scotland. This requirement, according to media regulator Ofcom, is in place to “support and strengthen the television production sector and creative economies of the UK’s nations and regions” outside of London.
But the show came under fire after it was claimed that only around 6% of workers on the previous production were actually based in Scotland.
At the time, factual TV producer and director Peter Strachan asked: “Is it acceptable that the BBC should be using money that’s earmarked to promote growth and jobs in Scotland and spending it on a series that is basically not doing that, a Scottish commission on which hardly anyone based in Scotland is working?”
Stephen Lambert, chief executive of Studio Lambert which makes the show, responded by saying the number of Scots would increase.
“A very different set of specialised skills and experience are required to make reality shows on the scale of The Traitors,” he said.
The show was also a “huge driver” the economy, especially tourism, in the Highlands which had seen a £20 million benefit, while the holiday booking site Expedia had seen a 190% surge in searches for Highlands holidays.
Ms Valentine was also quizzed on the decision to terminate River City, the soap series set on Clydeside.
“The world is not making soaps, it is making high impact dramas,” she said.
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