Act The Closed Shop. 

27 March 2004 tbs.pm/647

Equity anger over BBC film plan

Actors union Equity are up in arms over a BBC plan to make a film with 100 people who have never worked in the business before.

The union is calling for the plan to be scrapped because it doesn’t use experienced acting professionals.

Or is it more that the potential stars won’t be members of a certain union?

It’s well known that it’s difficult to get acting jobs if you’re not a signed up member of Equity, holding your union card in your hand. And in any other business, that would be called a closed shop and declared illegal under the 1990 Employment Act…