Perdita
03-02-2015, 11:00
EastEnders executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins has insisted that he has no plans to introduce characters who are defined solely by ethnicity, sexuality or race.
Treadwell-Collins said that he has no intention of including ethnic minority characters for inclusion's sake, insisting that it would instead leave viewers with a "blancmange".
He told Radio Times: "As soon as someone starts imposing editorial decisions, we fight back, because we know what we're doing. The day I start box-ticking is the day I leave."
Treadwell-Collins also revealed that he wanted to "break up the formula" of the show, and had achieved this partly by introducing the Carter family and drawing from his own experiences.
"The Carters are my family," he explained. "My father was an Irish immigrant named Michael Collins, my mother a hairdresser from Kilburn, named Linda. So Mick and Linda Carter.
"Stan Carter is my grandfather, a former Billingsgate fish porter who was a big powerful man and now sits in his chair still trying to rule his family. There is the difficult brother. I was the other son, like Johnny Carter. The story of him coming out to his mum was my story too."
Treadwell-Collins's comments follow claims last year from then-acting chair of the BBC Trust Diane Coyle.
Coyle claimed that there were almost twice as many white people living in EastEnders' fictional E20 as in real-life E17, saying that the corporation needed to do more "to provide an authentic portrayal of life in modern Britain".
Last June, BBC director general Tony Hall announced new measures to improve the representation of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic community, including a new executive development scheme and a ring-fenced commissioning fund.
Treadwell-Collins said that he has no intention of including ethnic minority characters for inclusion's sake, insisting that it would instead leave viewers with a "blancmange".
He told Radio Times: "As soon as someone starts imposing editorial decisions, we fight back, because we know what we're doing. The day I start box-ticking is the day I leave."
Treadwell-Collins also revealed that he wanted to "break up the formula" of the show, and had achieved this partly by introducing the Carter family and drawing from his own experiences.
"The Carters are my family," he explained. "My father was an Irish immigrant named Michael Collins, my mother a hairdresser from Kilburn, named Linda. So Mick and Linda Carter.
"Stan Carter is my grandfather, a former Billingsgate fish porter who was a big powerful man and now sits in his chair still trying to rule his family. There is the difficult brother. I was the other son, like Johnny Carter. The story of him coming out to his mum was my story too."
Treadwell-Collins's comments follow claims last year from then-acting chair of the BBC Trust Diane Coyle.
Coyle claimed that there were almost twice as many white people living in EastEnders' fictional E20 as in real-life E17, saying that the corporation needed to do more "to provide an authentic portrayal of life in modern Britain".
Last June, BBC director general Tony Hall announced new measures to improve the representation of the Black, Asian and minority ethnic community, including a new executive development scheme and a ring-fenced commissioning fund.