Culture, Media and Sport Committee
16 June 2026
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Culture, Media and Sport Committee House of Commons
00:02 - 00:47
Speaker 2
Good morning everyone. Welcome to the meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Today is the fourth oral evidence session for our BBC Royal Charter Review inquiry. And we are joined for our first panel by Steven Knight CBE, who is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and director, probably best known as the creator of Peaky Blinders, but also for a range of other brilliant TV shows. So, Steven, huge welcome to you from the committee.
Before we start, can I remind members to declare any interests before asking their questions? But I would like to kick off the questioning. Steven, do you think you could have made Peaky Blinders the same way outside the BBC?
00:47 - 01:48
Speaker 1
I don't think I could have made Peaky Blinders at all outside of the BBC. It falls into the, well, especially then and still now, but 2012, it falls into a category of curious and not of the time or of the fashion of the time. And often, not always, but often, it's the BBC that tends to take a chance on things like that. And so it was commissioned, and what's great about the BBC is that a commission usually means a green light. So you're asked to write a script and then you're sort of left to get on with it.
So it was BBC Two at first and then it found its, you know, it's got to work, you know, the experiment has to work. And it became popular, went to BBC One and then became global. So I honestly don't think it would have been picked up elsewhere.
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