The BBC must stop “tick box” diversity casting in its dramas, a review commissioned by the corporation has warned.

The broadcaster is so keen to include ethnic minorities in its programmes that representation is being “shoe-horned” into inappropriate settings such as period dramas.

Murder Is Easy, BBC One’s 2023 adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, was cited in the review as an example of diversity being “superimposed” on a story.

“Audiences are particularly unforgiving of this if it challenges their expectations of what they have switched on to see. If there’s an Agatha Christie murder mystery over the Christmas period, they won’t expect to be taken into anti-colonial struggles alongside the country house murder,” the review said of the adaptation, which incorporated elements of West African Yoruba culture.

“Unless it’s very skilfully done, there is a danger it will feel overly didactic and preachy, as if the viewer is being lectured or a point is being made heavy-handedly. A vital component of quality for the viewer is authenticity.”

The BBC also received complaints about the colour-blinding casting of Great Expectations, broadcast in 2023, with mixed-race actress Shalom Brune-Franklin playing Estella.

The review said that productions “should consider their choices carefully” when it comes to colour-blind casting.

“In depicting an anachronistic historical world in which people of colour are able to rise to the top of society as scientists, artists, courtiers and Lords of the Realm, there may be the unintended consequence of erasing the past exclusion and oppression of ethnic minorities and breeding complacency about their former opportunities,” it said.

“What needs to be avoided is ethnic diversity which looks forced and tick box, and we found our interviewees of colour as emphatic on this point as those who were white.”

Rather than “a smattering of diversity in every programme which can lead to inauthentic portrayal” and look “clunky”, BBC commissioners should feel able to make an all-white programme, just as they can produce an all-black programme such as Mr Loverman or I May Destroy You, the review recommended.

In modern-day dramas, audiences were particularly critical of ethnic minorities appearing in job roles and areas of the UK where this would be unlikely.

The review pointed to the casting in BBC One crime drama Shetland. “In series eight, the Procurator Fiscal, Harry Lamont, was played by an actor of Tanzanian heritage. He took over from the previous Procurator Fiscal, Maggie Kean, who was of Sri Lankan heritage. In series 10, the Procurator Fiscal was played by Samuel Anderson, an actor of Jamaican and Irish heritage,” it noted.

Meanwhile, several members of the Shetland police force have been played by actors of Nigerian heritage, a couple resident on the island are played by Middle Eastern and Indian heritage actors respectively, and the vicar’s wife is played by Nina Toussaint-White, who is mixed-race.

“These actors are undoubtedly chosen for their acting ability, but there is clearly an over-representation of people of colour, particularly amongst senior law officers and police in Scotland (let alone Shetland) where the percentages of ethnic minorities are 3.2 per cent and one per cent respectively,” the report said.

However, the report’s authors said that the show remains popular, suggesting “the diversity of the Shetland cast may be part of its popular appeal”.

The review was carried out by Anne Morrison, a former BBC executive and former chair of BAFTA, and Chris Banatvala, an independent media consultant.

They spoke to more than 100 commissioners, executives, programme-makers and media experts as part of their research, as well as surveying more than 4,500 members of the public.

On some points, they defended the corporation against complaints.

Doctor Who was heavily criticised for featuring Nathaniel Curtis, a mixed-race actor, as Sir Isaac Newton. But the review said: “If we can ask viewers to believe that the central character is an extra-terrestrial being who can regenerate into a range of different actors and travels in a time machine through the space-time continuum, a mixed-race Sir Isaac Newton seems much less of a stretch.”

The review identified several problem areas in the BBC’s drive for diversity

The BBC remains too London-centric

Viewers perceive the BBC as “skewed towards the middle class and London-centric”, and those living outside London and the South East said their lives felt under-represented.

“The London-based perspective can cause programme-makers and commissioners to assume that the rest of the UK is close to London’s demographics,” the report said of the capital city, where 46.2 per cent of residents identified as non-white in the last census.

For viewers in the Highlands of Scotland, the report said, “it would be easy to feel that the ethnic mix represented on television, which feels natural and normal in London, bears little relation to the world in which they live”.

One boss of an independent production company, speaking anonymously, said of the BBC executives who commission programmes: “Every single one of them lives within 15 miles of each other. They go to the same restaurants and they read the same books. They go to the same plays and they have the same friends…

Diversity does not include the working class

The BBC is basing its approach to diversity on protected characteristics in the 2010 Equality Act. This legislation is aimed at combating discrimination in employment and is ill-adapted for setting diversity targets at a public service broadcaster, the review said.

It added: “What is required is something more sophisticated, nuanced and authentic where the diversity is organic, rather than a system which comes across as tick box.”

The protected characteristics include race and disability but not class, and class representation is an area in which the BBC is failing, according to the report.

Working-class people “are often portrayed first and foremost through their class, focusing on their perceived problems and deprivation”.

“Overall, there appears to be a less positive portrayal of white, working-class men and women in BBC output, particularly when looked at cumulatively. Portrayal of working-class communities can often rely on the themes of poverty, crime, addiction and de-industrialisation with an absence of role models.”

In the past, comedies such as Only Fools and Horses, Rab C Nesbitt and Bread “celebrated working-class life and, importantly, were much loved by a wide UK audience”, along with The Royle Family. “Their appeal was universal and explored themes that cut across social boundaries. They didn’t come across as patronising or treat the setting as something strange, unfamiliar or out of place.”

The report cited Gavin & Stacey, Happy Valley, Alma’s Not Normal and Mrs Brown’s Boys as modern shows which do succeed in portraying the working class in a positive way. “Whether or not Mrs Brown’s Boys is to everyone’s taste is beside the point.”

Older women are still under-represented

The report uncovered a significant gender gap between presenters over the age of 60.

Across entertainment and factual shows, there were nearly four times as many male presenters over 60 as women. Among the over-70s, the imbalance was even more acute: there were 57 men over 70 and only 11 women.

“We were told that, as they get older, men in the media are portrayed as gaining gravitas and wisdom associated with authority. It works differently for women. It was argued that, if they stayed on television, older women had either to try and keep looking younger or to opt out altogether from being judged on their looks and develop idiosyncratic personas,” the authors said.

Where are all the East Asian actors?

Diverse casting in BBC dramas is heavily weighted towards black actors.

Of the 24 new drama titles launched in the review year, 2023, one-third had black or mixed-race protagonists, including Boiling Point, Murder Is Easy and This Town. The other 16 had white protagonists.

South Asian, East Asian and other ethnic backgrounds were not represented in lead roles despite the South Asian population (8.6 per cent) being more than twice the size of the black population (3.7 per cent) in the UK.

The BBC has since remedied this with Virdee, a crime drama about a British-Asian detective in Bradford.

The report called for more East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other) representation on the BBC, noting that “there is no current equivalent to David Yip’s pioneering role” in The Chinese Detective, which ran from 1981-82.

Some interviewees also complained that actors of colour can seem divorced from their communities. “The question has been asked, for example, does Luther [played by Iris Elba] have no black friends? The suspicion is that the role may have been written for a white actor and an actor of colour was cast without any adaptation of the role.”

Disability portrayal is lacking

Representation of disabled people is lacking, the report found. Disabled interviewees said they wanted to see more disability included incidentally, without their disability being the focus.

The review praised Waterloo Road for featuring actress Jo Coffey as the school secretary. The character has dwarfism and uses a wheelchair, “but, refreshingly, her disability isn’t her main story”.

Responding to the findings, Dr Samir Shah, the chairman of the BBC, said: “It is vital the BBC authentically reflects the lives of all the communities, classes, and cultures across the UK. Decision-making must happen closer to audiences if we want to ensure that everyone feels represented and that the BBC remains an engine for growth within the creative industries.”