Netflix’s Anne Mensah Urges TV Industry to Address Biases, ‘Baby Reindeer’ Issue

Netflix’s UK content chief, Anne Mensah, has called on the TV industry to face up to its in-built biases and help allow diverse creatives to “find their truth.”

In a spotlight session at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Mensah, ahead of James Graham’s MacTaggart lecture, which is expected to focus on the industry’s issues with class, emphasized her “super-hyper-focus” on addressing diversity in UK television.

The Netflix VP of UK Content highlighted shows such as Supacell, concentrating on a group of Black working-class superheroes in East London, as examples of how Netflix UK is tackling the issue. She urged the audience to confront their own unconscious biases, admitting she held them herself.

“One of the tricky things is [the industry] is a closed circuit and a closed shop,” she said. “It’s so hard to get beyond your own biases and getting past your own normal. The people who watch TV are not in this room and until we admit that, we won’t move forward.”

“If you can work with diverse content creators, let them find their truth. That’s why Supacell is so important. Rapman was speaking from his truth and I can’t do that. Weirdly, we went to the same primary school, 100 years apart, but I can’t speak for him.”

Later in the session, Mensah was questioned about the controversy surrounding Baby Reindeer, a darkly comic Richard Gadd series about his experience with an alleged stalker. The show has been plagued by controversy over its authenticity and safeguarding processes.

“I stand by the fact we made the show,” Mensah said. “It’s a drama, not a documentary, and that will be remembered.” She added that Netflix takes all of its productions “incredibly seriously” in regards to duty of care, noting a significant increase in men calling sexual abuse hotlines in the wake of the show.

“I don’t make shows for publicity’s sake,” Mensah added. “It was about giving the creator the space to tell that story. If [we’re] chasing publicity, it’s the antithesis of what I believe in. The audience is incredibly clever and diverse, and they spot good. A really controversial show that isn’t great goes nowhere.”

Netflix announced several shows during the session, including a drama from Sid Gentle Films starring Anya Taylor-Joy based on a book by journalist Bella Mackie, and a documentary about the 7/7 bombings in London.

Source: Deadline