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If the United Kingdom has become such a hot spot for Hollywood films and shows, why are so many of its entertainment industry workers out of a job?
On the one hand, the country’s soundstages are filled with massive U.S. productions ranging from Marvel movies to a “Harry Potter” TV show to Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” These shows employ hundreds, if not thousands, of British workers.
But the homegrown part of the entertainment business in the U.K. is in a deep depression, beset by rising costs and shrinking budgets at major production hubs like the BBC. For the grips, cinematographers and production designers who once made their living on British-produced content, it’s never been harder to get a gig.
“It’s feast or famine right now,” says veteran producer Jonathan Weissler. “I’ve got friends who are going from $100 million film to $100 million film and haven’t had a day off in a year. But I know others who would kill just to have a week of that.”
Elisabeth Murdoch, whose company Sister is behind shows such as “Black Doves” and “Kaos,” recently said the U.K. is experiencing a “perfect storm” of challenges when it comes to TV. She and others argue that spiraling costs, a collapsing ad market and major funding cuts across the local networks means there’s less money to back both scripted and unscripted programming. Moreover, since studios and streamers are economizing, they’re less interested in buying foreign-made prestige shows and movies of the kind that the U.K. is known for. That’s set the stage for a contraction in what had been a thriving part of the industry.
“We’ve got lots of members who are really struggling and have been for 18 months to two years now,” says Philippa Childs, head of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu). “I reckon about 50% of crew are unemployed at the moment,” says another executive. (That number could climb even higher if Donald Trump makes good on his threats to impose tariffs on films and shows produced in foreign countries.)
This bust for U.K. production is taking place alongside a boom in U.S.-backed films and series that have crossed the pond in search of the country’s generous subsidies and legendary soundstages.
On paper, there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about the direction of the business. Total investment on film and prestige TV in the U.K. in 2024 leaped 31% to $7 billion, the second-highest year on record, according to figures from the British Film Industry. And these productions couldn’t be splashier. (Crews in places like Georgia, New York and Los Angeles are jealous, even angry, that so many major films have decamped overseas instead of being made in the U.S.)
One recent émigré, “Avengers: Doomsday” — likely to be among the priciest movies ever made — began shooting in London’s Pinewood Studios last month. Several other enormous features are filming in the U.K. or starting soon, including “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” “Masters of the Universe,” “Enola Holmes 3” and “Wuthering Heights,” along with returning series like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “House of the Dragon” and “Ahsoka.”
But major studio releases are the only part of the business that’s growing (the bulk of the $7 billion film and prestige TV expenditures in the U.K. came from U.S. studios); nearly everything else — which, for the U.K., largely means broadcast TV for the likes of the BBC and Channel 4 — is flatlining.
According to the BFI’s figures, prestige programming has fallen by a quarter. In a recent government inquiry, Peter Kosminsky — who directed the acclaimed 2015 BBC series “Wolf Hall” (arguably the TV show that heralded a new era for high-end TV in the U.K.)— claimed that last year’s follow-up to the show, “The Mirror and the Light,” could only get made when writer Peter Straughan, leading man Mark Rylance and he “all gave up a significant proportion of their fees.”
Kosminsky said part of the problem was that deep-pocketed streamers who had moved their productions to the U.K. and created an “inflated cost environment,” making it prohibitively expensive to produce lower-budgeted local content. He faulted these American companies for having “little or no interest in making … high-end dramas that are of specific interest to a U.K. audience.” “The Mirror and the Light” was eventually produced on a vastly reduced budget by the BBC. But many other shows are stuck in funding limbo, unable to get made.
Due to the predominantly freelance nature of the U.K. workforce, precise unemployment figures are difficult to determine. A Bectu survey of a small sampling of its members in February 2024 indicated that 68% of film and TV workers were, at the time, “not currently working” (only a slight improvement from September 2023 when the writers and actors strikes were raging). More than a third also said they were “planning to leave the industry” in the next five years. Bectu has another survey incoming, but few are expecting the new figures to look any better.
Even the positivity coming from the studio and streamer space is dimmed on closer examination. As per the BFI’s figures, the spend is way up, but the actual number of shoots is way down.
372 films and high-end TV shows were produced in the U.K. last year, 30% less than in 2023 and even less than in 2020, which was mostly shut down by the pandemic. The billions of dollars being investment is seemingly being divided up among fewer, yet more expensive projects.
“But more big-budget productions do not necessarily mean more jobs, since they hire specialist teams on short-term contracts,” says film data analyst Stephen Follows, adding that “smaller productions, which create steadier work, are in decline.”
In early 2021, Nic Pringle got a call to work on Lionsgate’s “Borderlands,” a star-studded adaptation of the popular video game. A freelance assistant director, Pringle was working on a low-budget children’s TV show at the time. But the studio was offering him a gig as the film’s second assistant director, a bigger position on a much bigger film than any of his previous credits. “I went from talking about kids chaperones to speaking to Cate Blanchett about how she was going to hold a flamethrower,” he says. “It was like whiplash.”
Pringle’s experience mirrors that of many in the industry around that time. A desperate need for crew was catapulting workers up the chain of command. COVID lockdown restrictions had just been lifted across the U.K., and the industry was in a rush to get productions started again. There had been a major pre-pandemic growth spurt, but the dramatic rise in demand for fresh content during lockdown saw production skyrocket to levels not seen previously. The following year, they climbed even higher. “I had one week off in 2022,” notes Pringle, who says he started work on a project on Jan. 8 “and I went all the way through until Dec. 21.”
A British Film Industry report from 2022 showed overall spending on film and TV reached a high of $7.72 billion. The local industry was forced to grow — and grow very quickly.
“It basically doubled in size during COVID,” says an experienced TV producer. As productions grabbled with a major skills shortage and a desperation to staff up their crew, the knock-on effect was that, as more entered the industry, those already in it were getting swiftly promoted (and day rates were jumping up accordingly, pricing out lower-budget indie projects in the process).
Even just two years ago, in April 2023, the “acute skills shortage” below the line was seen as a significant threat to the continued growth of the U.K. industry, enough for the BFI to launch a $12 million initiative to support development and training. From its own review a year earlier, it identified a gap of “between 15,130 and 20,770” full-time employees needed in the sector “by 2025” to meet the perceived demand.
But then the actors and writers strikes hit. “In the space of perhaps just 18 months, we have gone from a situation where everyone was screaming about there not being enough skills in the industry to a situation where we’re concerned about people leaving because they just aren’t able to sustain themselves,” says Childs.
The consequences of this slowdown could be dire. “The fundamental problem is that we got too big,” says one executive producer. “We need 50% of our industry to — excuse my French — fuck off. We’ve got too many people; we need to just naturally Darwin it out. We need to become smaller, faster and leaner.”
That reduction appears to be underway. Earlier this month, StudioCanal closed down Red Production Company, the renowned award-winning banner behind “Happy Valley” and “It’s a Sin.” Other British indies have suffered similar fates.
Pringle bought an apartment in London’s studio hub of Ealing in late 2022, anticipating that he’d be living near his work. But since then, most of his jobs have been far afield, in places like Italy and Scotland. He’s barely had a night in his new digs.
“Unless you’re on one of the blockbusters in London, the business has fallen off a cliff,” he says. “I’m very lucky to have been working, but I’ve just not been home.”
“Boom is actually, in a way, as unhelpful as bust,” says Laura Mansfield, chief executive of ScreenSkills, the U.K. industry’s non-profit skills body. “What you want is long-term sustainable growth. That’s got to be the target.”
While ScreenSkills was among those leading the charge in trying to fill the U.K. skills gap in 2023, it’s now looking at ways to help workers transfer their specializations across a highly-contrasting industry currently juggling a near-boom in one sector and a definite bust in another — and one that for many previously felt quite closed off.
“I think there has been a lot of silo-ing,” suggests Adrian Wootton, head of the British Film Commission. “People working in unscripted TV or domestic drama have not worked on independent film or high-end TV.”
But there also needs to be the necessary roles.
On an optimistic note, there are hopes that the new independent film tax credit for U.K.-produced or co-produced features under $20 million, unveiled last year but having come into effect in April 2025, could help boost the mid-level homegrown movie industry that had been all-but squeezed out of the U.K.
“I’ve not known so many British independent producers that I’ve talked to in the last six months being so positive — the tax credit has stimulated new investment, both from the U.S. and from Europe,” says Wootton.
There are now calls for a similar intervention to save the U.K.’s television business. Alongside a new tax break for prestige scripted shows on a par with the support that indie films receive, Kosminsky is among those also lobbying for a tax on streamers such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which would see 5% of their U.K. subscription revenue go into a fund for high-end British drama. Germany and France have imposed similar fees to support their local entertainment industries.
Not everyone is on board. Although a Parliamentary committee recently endorsed the idea of the so-called “streamer levy,” culture secretary Lisa Nandy says she is concerned that it could backfire and “deter” Hollywood investment.
One truly terrifying possible scenario would do more than just discourage studios and streamers from working in the country.
The U.K. entertainment industry is praying that President Trump’s tariff plans are nothing more than bluster. If, however, the president makes good on those threats or even institutes a different series of tariffs to discourage studios from shooting movies overseas, no amount of tax credits and belt-tightening will be able to save the day.
As one producer notes: “If this goes the distance, it will decimate the industry.”
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