Playwright and screenwriter James Graham called for more opportunities for the working class in the television industry.

In his MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Graham cited figures suggesting that only 8 percent of people currently working in television are from the working class.

He said this means that only a small number of people are “bringing their experiences, views, stories and culture to a platform that is supposed to reflect all of these things to us”.

Graham also described social class as “everyone’s least preferred category in terms of diversity and representation” and said more attention needed to be paid to social mobility.

Graham is best known as a writer of plays and television series, including Sherwood, Dear England, Quiz, Best of Enemies and Brexit: The Uncivil War.

In his speech in Edinburgh, the 42-year-old called for social class to be taken more into account when measuring diversity within the industry.

“We have a hard time defining it,” says Graham, “and that’s why we still quite often exclude it from industry diversity measurements.”

“And I want to talk about how we can make progress together on this front.”

Today, diversity generally refers to characteristics such as race, gender, sexuality and disability.

“I could be wrong,” Graham said, “but compared to other areas of underrepresentation, I feel like when it comes to social status, we just don’t feel it as much.”

“Perhaps it is the British embarrassment over the ‘money’ issue; we feel uncomfortable while other, more visible and sometimes easier to define areas of diversity awaken the activist in us. The struggle seems purer, the goal more real.”

Speaking to an audience of television industry personalities, Graham said he “attended a public comprehensive school – like 93% of the population in the country.”

However, he noted that in some areas of the cultural sector the proportion of the workforce who have attended public schools is significantly lower.

Graham paid tribute to his former school because, in his opinion, it was “unapologetic about emphasizing arts subjects for working-class or welfare-class children in a socio-economically disadvantaged area.”

In his memories of his childhood, the author emphasized the positive influence that “representative television” had on his upbringing.

“I thought the whole world was full of people who spoke, thought and felt like my family,” he said. “I’m not sure the same can be said today.”

He referred to a recent survey by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, according to which only 8 percent of people working in the television industry are working class.

“In comparison, 46 to 49 percent of Britons identify as working class. So that’s almost half the population,” Graham said.

“But only 8% of them bring their experiences, views, stories and culture to a platform that is supposed to reflect all of these things to us.”

Ahead of his speech, the Edinburgh TV Festival announced a new initiative called Impact Unit, which aims to strengthen the television industry’s approach to class and social mobility.

Elsewhere in his speech, Graham spoke out in support of public service broadcasters, saying they should not be taken for granted.

He said of critics of the BBC: “Don’t they realise that without the BBC we will lose our competitive advantage over US markets? That British stories set in British communities and featuring British characters are protected by the licence fee and could perish without it?”

Elsewhere, Graham suggested that the new Labour government should give culture an active role in this promised national renewal – and not just keep it at a distance, in its own silo on the fringes of policy-making, as so often happens.

He added: “Creativity and arts subjects have been systematically removed from the English education system over the last 15 years.”

“Almost half of all drama teachers have disappeared from state schools since 2010. The number of hours for music and dance has been drastically reduced.

“That’s why it’s so important that we all remind the new government of its promise to bring creative subjects back into the core curriculum. All of us – here, on TV, not just in the arts.”

A A spokesman for the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the government was “fully committed” to strengthening the contribution that “all people, everywhere, can make to our national story” and an inquiry had been launched into giving young people greater access to creative education.

“British storytelling on television must reflect the full diversity of people, communities and experiences in the UK,” they said.

Graham also addressed artificial intelligence (AI), a controversial topic in the industry, saying it cannot replace the creativity of writing.

While acknowledging the threat posed by artificial intelligence, he added that audiences are likely to reject art that is not created by human creativity.

“Despite all of AI’s so-called efficiency benefits and the very real threat to jobs, I firmly believe that it will actually be audiences who reject its interference in writing, content creation and art.

“The reason you cry when you hear a Taylor Swift song is because of the connection that comes from knowing that someone else has felt the same way you did. It makes you feel less alone in your pain.”