BBC Making J.K. Rowling Documentary Without Her Input

The BBC is making a documentary series about the influence and legacy of J.K. Rowling without any input from the author which brands her a “polarising figure”. The Telegraph has the story.

Rowling, 61, who wrote the Harry Potter books, is understood to have had no involvement in the new two-part production, which covers her path to “unprecedented literary success” before she became “one of Britain’s most polarising public figures”.

The two episodes, which Rogan Scotland is making for BBC Factual and BBC Scotland, will use Rowling’s life “as a lens through which to explore three decades of profound social, political and technological change”, according to the production company.

For the hour-long episodes, producers will draw on “rare archive” material and “Rowling’s own words”, as well as interviews conducted with people who have worked with her in the past.

Simon Young, the Head of Commissioning for BBC History, said of the programme, which has the working title J.K. Rowling: “No cultural history of Britain in the 21st century would be complete without the story of the boy wizard that J.K. Rowling created, the publishing and film-making phenomenon that she spawned, or the polarising public figure she has become.”

The first episode will chart the author’s rise to success, from her childhood to transforming children’s publishing with Harry Potter, while the second will follow Rowling as she “becomes an increasingly powerful political voice”, according to Rogan Scotland.

Rowling, who has sold more than 600 million copies of her novels worldwide, once said she would rather go to jail than refer to a transgender person by their preferred pronouns. She first voiced her gender-critical views more than six years ago, when she mocked the use of the term “people who menstruate” instead of “women” in an article.

She has since become one of the country’s most prominent gender-critical voices, and has found herself increasingly at odds with the actors who made their names in the Harry Potter film franchise, particularly since the Supreme Court’s ruling that, under the Equality Act 2010, trans women are not legally women.

The author has denied accusations of transphobia, but has nonetheless become a target for criticism because of her views.

Earlier this year, John Lithgow, the actor who plays Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, in the new HBO Harry Potter series, on which Rowling is an Executive Producer, said it had been “a hard decision” to accept the role in light of her “inexplicable” views.

Several directors and actors have turned down roles or projects associated with Rowling, citing “transphobia”, including Ally Pankiw, a Canadian director who worked on the TV series Black Mirror, and Kate Herron, whose directing credits include Loki, Doctor Who and Sex Education.

Worth reading in full.