Speeches by Huq.

“Well, Ealing thrives. It is doubling, I think. I went to see the plans. I think an earlier extant thing was dumped. It was going to be on CGI, but instead they want more and more stages.”

“Yes, we have seen that as well.”

“On the archive that you mentioned, we had a lovely trip there recently, but a third of the stuff in there is not viewable by members of the public either. We know that it is very slow and laborious to digitise it, but I have just been googling a few things while I am here and they seem to be blocked, or you have to buy…”

“I have just googled two things: “Dance Craze”, which is a 2 Tone 1980s thing—you have to buy a subscription to see that—and then also “I’m British But…”, which was the first thing Gurinder Chadha did. She came and spoke to our Committee last year. I remember seeing it at a Southbank screening. It is blocked; it says, “…”

“Yes, the iPlayer and 4oD, where you can watch a lot of historical Channel 4 and BBC things for free. Would you ever consider such a thing?”

“I know the soundtrack but I have never seen the film—”

“I am actually going to see a Doctor Who on Saturday at Southbank, “Spearhead from Space”. Ealing is all over that episode—the first one in colour, I think. I have done a voiceover on a DVD version that is coming out, so they invited me. However, looking at your programme, the majority of the screenings at Southbank are…”

“I mentioned that “I’m British But…”—the first thing Gurinder Chadha did—says, “Currently unavailable”.”

“I remember that in the ’90s—I am that old—I went to a screening at the Southbank. It was a discussion—there were different ethnic minority filmmakers describing how they got in. That came through one of those very short film schemes, and we have heard evidence that those micro-budget schemes have disappeared. It was a …”

“Twenty-nine minutes, it says here.”

“They have vanished.”

“Ben, I saw you quoted in a couple of Guardian things—they weren’t great stories, I have to say. One was three months ago—“BFI apologises to film-maker over racial discrimination complaint”. The other is from the year before, “BFI accused of taking limited steps to address systemic racism”. These were both in The Guardi…”

“I think the accusation is that a lot of money is spent on anti-racism training, whereas you could have a ringfenced budget for these sorts of schemes. We had Myriam Raja from “Top Boy”, which I think started on Channel 4 and then went to Netflix, like “Black Mirror”—that I have some relationship with. She graduated fro…”

“How much additional studio space would you like to see in the next five to 10 years?”

“I call Marie Goldman to respond briefly to this epic debate.”

“I will call Dr Kieran Mullan to move the motion, and then I will call the Minister to respond. As is the convention with these 30-minute wonders, there will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up.”

“We said five minutes each.”

“Order. I remind hon. Members to stand. We will then work out how much time each Member gets.”

“Order. Avoid the word “you”—that is one to steer clear of.”

“Order. The Clerk is frowning at me, because this is a bit long for an intervention.”