‘Rooting’ the BBC: An interview with Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director of BBC Nations

Abstract

In early 2021, Rhodri Talfan Davies was appointed Director of Nations, a role which would see him lead all the BBC’s work across Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, alongside his responsibilities as Director of BBC Wales. Shortly after this appointment, and the announcement of further commitments by the BBC to nations and regions, the authors interviewed Talfan Davies to understand the decisions that flow from translating the often abstract concept of national regions and English regionalism into a coherent set of organisational strategies, commissioning priorities and local production. A second purpose was to explore the value of local programming in an era of global television.

A question of sustainability

“…Wales is also the most important producer of bilingual factual (news, sport, current affairs and culture) and fictional content in the UK. The presence of strong indigenous media contributes to reflecting and strengthening a sense of citizenship and evolving identities of the Welsh people (McElroy and Noonan, 2022;Fodor, Komorowski and Lewis, 2021).…”