Speeches by Bryant.

“I have to declare it, because it is a requirement of the House that I declare anything that is a potential interest or might be perceived to be an interest by a reasonable member of the public. This is simply to say, I am not entering into making films myself, but two of my books have been optioned: one by Mother Pictu…”

“I thought it was interesting in the debate yesterday that the one thing that has come back to me most frequently from the creative industries, apart from discussions about artificial intelligence—which you might come on to later perhaps—has been in relation to access to finance, but it wasn’t much debated yesterday aft…”

“I am conscious that we have lost 124 cinemas in the last couple of years. I think we have something like 825 cinemas at the moment. While a lot of us watch movies and films on our mobile phones or on a tablet, or on a television at home, or wherever it may be, there is nothing that beats that experience of sitting in a…”

“I am going to call the fifth amendment at this point—not that we have a written constitution or an amendment to it. We are thinking about it. There are arguments in favour, there are arguments against, and there is a cost. We need to assess where we want to go on that.”

“I am not putting it on the table, and I have not taken it off the table.”

“There is no table to put it on.”

“There is another serious point. The fact that UK film and television qualifies as European content is a very important aspect of our future in this sector, and we certainly do not want to lose that. Anything that we can do to enhance and protect that is obviously in our interests.”

“I note that you think that, Dame Caroline.”

“The sector has said that to me as well.”

“We are conscious of it, and we are thinking about it.”

“What do you look like in pink? I guess that is the question.”

“Sure. The tax incentives—the tax credits, tax reliefs, which have been in place in various different forms over the years, not just in film and high-end television, but audiovisual as it is now termed, as well as in other sectors—are a really important part of our investment in the creative industries. Let’s go back on…”

“I do not want us to chop and change all the time for the precise reason that Alastair raised, which is that if you provide uncertainty, people will stop making investments in the future. Take “Conclave”—I spoke to Danny Cohen after I saw “Conclave”, which is one of his films, and to Tessa Ross, who was involved. It was…”

“Among the UK’s extraordinary advantages are our history, our language and our communities. Quite often we are at the crossroads of nations. We can make a film like “Slumdog Millionaire” in a way that no other country would be able to do. We need to value that and not undermine it. Diversity comes in many different shap…”

“The point about the apprenticeship levy is really important. If the creative industries are roughly 6% to 7% of the economy, but we are only 2% of the apprenticeships, something has gone wrong[2]. That is writ large in film and television. If you are making a film, it is a project where you are probably recruiting lots…”

“I had a horrible feeling when I said it that you were going to ask that question. If we make it too complicated, there is a danger that it is just unusable. Historically, I have come across examples of people saying that they are making a production and that they are based in Wales to meet some kind of quota or other, …”

“In particular, I hope that we are going to start hearing about a lot of independent films being made that might not otherwise have been made. I think Gurinder Chadha got a mention earlier. I hope I am going to get this right: I think she is making her own version of “A Christmas Carol” at the moment. She was very hesit…”

“I have heard the requests for that. I am not the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so I will not be making that commitment today. There are good arguments for it. There are some downsides, too. If you make a film but you cannot distribute it, that is a bit of a problem. “One Life” was probably the most financially successfu…”

“I can remember that there used to be a row about that. France has always insisted on quotas for music and film and all those kinds of things in French films, but then French cinemas have nobody sitting in them. I am quite hesitant about telling audiences what they must watch. What about “Wicked”? It was made here and h…”

“I will have to write to you about the downsides. I knew you were going to ask me that.”