ITV relaunching Original Voices initiative

ITV is to offer drama writers from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic [BAME] backgrounds the chance to work on ‘Coronation Street’ as part of a returning initiative.
The organisation is relaunching its Original Voices scheme – which first launched in 2013 – which aims to help develop the skills of applicants from BAME backgrounds and give them a chance to work on storylines about cobbles favourites.
John Whiston, managing director of continuing drama, and head of ITV in the north, said: "The twin engines of any long running series are the Story Office and the Script Department.
"They are also a great stepping stone onto a show’s writing team. This scheme, aimed at writers from BAME backgrounds, gives the four successful applicants a unique opportunity to spend time in both those areas, understanding what makes a continuing drama tick and contributing to its creative and editorial process. All in all, it’s a perfect grounding in soap.
"From ITV’s perspective, we need our shows not just to look diverse on screen but to feel diverse in their heart. And that comes from having a diverse editorial team making them.
"This scheme opens us up to brand new diverse talent and introduces us to people who will be story lining, script editing, writing and one day hopefully producing ITV’s two most important shows, ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Emmerdale’."
ITV has run the initiative on four occasions, and successful candidates have had the opportunity to join the writing and story teams on both ‘Corrie’ and ‘Emmerdale’.
It comes just months after ‘Corrie’ introduced its first-ever black family, the Baileys – who are made up of former ‘Doctors’ star Lorna Laidlaw as Aggie Bailey – in June.
Announcing the new cobbles family in April, executive producer Iain MacLeod said: "The north-west and Great Britain as a whole is a big melting pot of people from different backgrounds and ethnicities and the more representative we can make ‘Corrie’ of Manchester and Britain the better really.
"It was a no-brainer, but I mean, as with anything on ‘Coronation Street’, it was the characters that came first and [the Baileys] were just instantly likeable."