Not all Muslim communities harbour terrorists – but you wouldn’t know that from watching TV

I believe UK drama has been failing us, writes RADA chair Marcus Ryder. If we want to stop these riots and be at peace with one another, we have to stop scapegoating Black people and Muslims

‘While there might be positive Muslim individuals on screen, the communities are invariably portrayed as problematic; populated with forced marriages and potential terrorists’ (Warp/Kobal/Shutterstock)

In 2021, I was appointed the chair of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), arguably Britain’s – and possibly the world’s – most prestigious drama school.

For the last three years, I have greeted the new influx of first year students with the following words: “Drama is essential to democracy and a well functioning society. What you learn here will shape and change the world.”

I admit it is a bit grandiose – and I know some of the students think I am leaning towards hyperbole – but I think the riots currently sweeping across the UK prove my point.

Television – and drama specifically – impacts us on an emotional level. It enables us to walk in the shoes of another person and understand their reality. News and current affairs tell us what to care about on an intellectual level, drama tells us why, in our very soul.

And I believe UK drama has been failing us. If we want to understand our diverse neighbours; if we want to stop these riots and be at peace with one another, TV has to stop treating certain members of society as scapegoats. Drama is the best way to do that – so we need true diversity across our media and on our screens.

We need disabled people telling their stories so I can understand the world from their perspective.

We need women to have equal access to directing their own films so I can literally see the world through their eyes.

And we desperately need Muslims and people from immigrant communities to be able to create dramas and comedies so you can all feel our joy and pain.

Over the last 50 years, there has been real progress; with most British drama writers now recognising there should be positive characters from minoritised backgrounds. Casting directors are now more willing to cast Black actors in non-stereotypical “positive” roles. Things are far from perfect, but there is no denying there has been progress.

However, there’s something special about these “positive” characters and it goes to the heart of how British television thinks about diversity.

Ofcom measures the diversity both in front of – and behind – the camera through an industry body called the Creative Diversity Network. When it comes to on-screen diversity, they simply count the number of characters from different backgrounds and then look at whether they are in lead roles. But what they don’t measure is the way certain communities are being represented – and this is the heart of the problem.

The “positive” characters from diverse backgrounds are often the only example existing in functioning white communities, or at the very least majority white communities. Black communities on TV, on the other hand, are portrayed almost exclusively as dysfunctional. While many of the people portrayed in a drama set in a non-white community may be likeable, the community they were set in is normally anything but.

The message that comes across loud and clear on our screens is that while there might be good Black individuals, Black communities are a problem.

The same is invariably true of Muslim representation and the onscreen representation of immigrants. While there might be positive Muslim individuals, the communities are invariably portrayed as problematic; populated with forced marriages and potential terrorists.

The result is that people can like Black, Muslim or immigrant individuals, while at the same time be left with no deeper understanding of the communities that they come from.

We can see this playing out in the riots, right now. People can feel they are not racist – even pointing to individual Muslim or immigrant friends they might have – while at the same time feel it is not a contradiction to target their communities or places of worship.

Way back in 1989, the celebrated African-American director, Spike Lee, summed this up in a seminal scene in the movie Do The Right Thing. The Black lead character points out to his white colleague that all his favourite sports stars, singers and movie actors are Black; yet at the same time he is incredibly racist against the Black community.

If we want drama to heal the fractures in our society – and I believe that is one of its fundamental roles – then we need to start thinking less about “positive role models”. The rioters are not rioting against individuals, they are rioting against communities.

So, while television drama has done an excellent job in humanising Black, immigrant and Muslim individuals, we now need to start humanising their communities. The best way to start doing that is actually employing more of us behind the camera so we can write about and act in dramas about our perspectives.

It might just stop the riots next time around.