What To Know About the Writers Strike & How It Affects British TV
On Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at midnight ET, the Writers Guild of America East and West walked off the job after failing to get production studios to agree to crucial points in a new contract. Most of those issues revolve around streaming, bringing the current system into line with today’s technology, reflecting how people consume television and movies, and forward-looking policies to create a framework for emerging technologies. For those curious about the issues at play, we have a bullet point rundown below, but the real question for Anglophiles is how it will affect our beloved British shows.
The Writers Guild of Great Britain has been unequivocal in its support for the WGA strike, “We are advising our members not to work on projects in the jurisdiction of the WGA for the duration of the strike following a motion of solidarity passed by our lay governing body.” The press release also reminded members that they would be removed from the U.S. Guild if they took on work within a WGA jurisdiction during the strike. “We continue to show our solidarity with our sister union and their members in the US as they embark on industrial action to secure fair pay, decent working conditions and to gain their rightful share in the future financial successes of their work,” said WGGB Chair Lisa Holdsworth.
In the short term, that means many “British-ish” shows produced via American companies, like Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon, Bridgerton on Netflix, and House of the Dragon on HBO and Max, are in pencils-down mode. Most of these series rushed to finish scripts before the strike to continue filming, but it does mean on-the-fly edits will not occur, and no writers will be on set to fix stuff that’s not working. That may not sound like a big issue, but as anyone who has watched Quantum of Solace can attest, not having a writer on set can hurt the process.
