Arts Group

Settling down for dinner, imagine my surprise to see the BBC openly admitting to the exploitation of unpaid workers in the production of “James May’s Toy Stories”.  To achieve the production of the plasticine garden in the second episode, James May introduces his model maker, and team of ‘helpers’ thus:

‘these art students are an absolutely fantastic find, and very cheap actually! – ‘cos they’re doing it for nothing! But what I haven’t got the heart to tell them, is that this is actually the workhouse, it’s that victorian ethic again’

Hang on a second James – so you’re actually admitting that you’re using these students and exploiting them for their labour to bolster your production? Because that’s what you’ve just admitted to. You’ve just described that they are providing a service that you need, and you’re not paying them. Have you even heard of National Minimum Wage Guidelines? Well done BBC. You’ve broken employment legislation, and then transmitted it, and one of your key presenters bragging about it. Not only that – you didn’t even bother to thank the students amongst the groups at the end of the programme, or even put their names in your credits.

I’m sure these students, and everyone else involved had a great time on the production. But you know what the difference is? If those students hadn’t been roped in, the BBC would have had to pay some poor production assistants to do the job. Instead they circumvented this and cut their costs by exploiting creatives at the beginnings of their careers who were hungry opportunity. This wasn’t “work experience” – you asked them to complete a service for you, and you didn’t pay them. This from an organization that receives public funding. And don’t push any rubbish about voluntary work – this wasn’t a charity project to help the needy, this wasn’t even an internship with the hint of a job at the end of it. The BBC was producing a progamme here – I presume all the management got paid who worked on it, and I’m certain James May got paid for his disrespectful gloating.

The thousands of volunteers who rolled the odd plasticine flower at the ideal home show clearly did this for a bit of fun. Even the Chelsea Pensioners might be justified as doing this as an activity they enjoyed on a casual level (though James May nicely rewards the veterans who’ve defended his country and freedoms by insulting them with a comment about their poor memory), but here in this programme the BBC has abused the labour of young people clearly doing work, and they’ve openly admitted to doing so to cut on the costs of producing a programme.

Shame on you James May. Shame on you BBC. Now go back and pay the people who made your programme possible.

Witness this appallingly casual abuse of labour yourselves by clicking here