‘British television can tell better stories if it better reflects who we are as a nation’ – historian David Olusoga

A generation of black programme makers lost to a television industry that didn’t know how to nurture them, and all the key creative decisions made by white people in a self-sustaining elite. These are just two of the main issues in the television industry for David Olusoga.

He is a professor, historian, writer and broadcaster with over twenty years experience, and made his name through an influential BBC documentary on the Windrush Scandal and the series ‘A House Through Time.’  David Olusoga gave the annual McTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival yesterday and called on the industry to do better.

We speak to him and begin by asking about the controversy surrounding the BBC’s plan to drop lyrics from some traditional songs in this year’s Last Night of the Proms. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had his say on the issue today when he said it was time to stop what he called ‘our cringing embarrassment’ about the country’s history.