Commercialism and Quality: Television Institutions and the British Film Industry, 1998–2002

Abstract

During the 1990s, the relationship between cinema and state in Britain underwent vast changes. Successive governments led by John Major and Tony Blair paid greater attention to the film culture as part of a new focus on ‘creative industries’. New policies in support of the film industry were initiated, including tax breaks for British cinema, and public funding for film production raised through the proceeds of the National Lottery, initiated in 1994 by the Major government as a means to raise non-tax public finance for ‘good causes’. Initially Lottery funds were distributed to individual film projects via national Arts Councils, and, after 1998, invested in three ‘consortia’, which were to operate like mini-studios designed to encourage a competitive domestic industry.1 In 2000, a new quasi-non-governmental body was created to oversee all aspects of the public intervention into film culture. The Film Council (later, the UK Film Council) was responsible for the dispersal of millions of pounds’ worth of funds for feature film development, production and distribution. The focus shifted from subsidy to investment, and the expectation was that the films produced by the British industry should aim for popular mainstream appeal and commercial success. Through these various funding mechanisms, the intention was to move British cinema from an undercapitalized artisanal business to a fully functioning indigenous ‘creative industry’.