BBC Continued To Commission ‘Meet The Khans’ Producer Chatterbox Media Despite String Of Bullying Complaints: Deadline Investigation

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The BBC has continued commissioning UK production company Chatterbox Media despite discovering its owners Nav Raman and Ali Quirk had at least a dozen complaints lodged against them including for bullying over a 12-month period, a Deadline investigation can reveal.Deadline has seen correspondence sent by UK broadcasting union Bectu to representatives for the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 outlining “widespread and prolonged complaints of mismanagement and bullying” at Chatterbox, having received “short of ten thousand words of written testimony from Bectu members alleging this behavior.”That letter, sent in February of this year, asked that the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 “investigate this matter thoroughly and cease existing commissions while an investigation is underway.”Since then, the BBC, which placed resolving bullying issues at the heart of its latest supplier code of conduct, has greenlit Chatterbox for BBC Three reality series Charlotte In Sunderland, led by Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby.

Two former Chatterbox employees were emboldened to contact Deadline about Chatterbox’s behavior after reading news of this commission.After receiving the same letter from Bectu, Paramount-owned Channel 5 has stopped working with Chatterbox.

Channel 4 has never commissioned Chatterbox, although the production company received a £20,000 ($24,000) grant from the pubcaster’s Emerging Indie Fund in December 2020.Along with Crosby, BAFTA-winning Chatterbox has made shows fronted by the likes of British Boxer Amir Khan and chart-topping singer Tinie Tempah.

The firm was founded by former Channel 4 commissioner Raman and former Raw TV, Sugar Films and Barcroft Media alum Quirk in 2018.In a statement to Deadline, the BBC