The most significant decrease in female representation came in 2020, while male representation was stable. The Creative Diversity Network (CDN), the organisation which published the Diamond report, said this implied that men were less likely to leave the workforce during the pandemic, and that women had struggled to regain their positions in the industry afterwards.

The study also found that just 32.4% of TV writers working last year were female, with the proportion falling to 25.3% for directors.

Elsewhere, the report also showed that the proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in senior roles had risen slightly from 11.4% to 12.2%, although it’s important to mention that still means that this group is underrepresented when you take UK population estimates (13%) into account.

The number of UK women in senior TV roles has dropped significantly since the pandemic