Minding the gap: production management and the corrosive impact of the ‘production’/’editorial’ labour divide in UK television

Production managers (PMs) play a vital role in television production. The ability of a company to bring in a project on-time and on-budget, while realising the vision of its producers, depends on production management. Yet PMs and related roles consistently head the lists of shortages reported by employers in UK television whenever the demand for content is high. The industry struggles to recruit to the role: more significantly, it fails to retain the experienced PMs it has. Our British Academy funded project surveyed and interviewed PMs (and former PMs) about their experiences in UK television. The survey identified the three most commonly cited reasons for leaving or contemplating leaving production management: feeling undervalued and disrespected, an ‘always on’ work culture, and being overloaded and under-resourced. Interviews further highlighted a growing structural and cultural divide between ‘production’ and ‘editorial’ staff, which exacerbates dissatisfaction and retention issues. This divide, while not universal, is widespread and contributes to compromised productivity, poor planning and resource management, toxic work cultures, and failures in the talent pipeline. Our research aims to better understand this divide and explore alternative approaches to television production that could improve productivity and working conditions by bridging the gap between production and editorial teams.