THE Chairman of the British Film Institute has told a Bradford audience that he feels the area could become a leader in the UK for drama.

Greg Dyke, who is also chairman of the Football Association and former Director General of the BBC, spoke as part of the first in an annual series of the Vice Chancellor's annual lectures, which will see top figures invited each year to give a talk to students, staff and the general public.

At last night's lecture, before a crowd that include Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe and BIshop of Leeds Nick Baines, he also spoke of how he thought the license fee may not last much longer, and how the Premier League was losing its "Englishness."

During his lecture on leadership in the media, football and film he also addressed his removal from the top role at the BBC following its reporting on how the Blair government had "sexed up" the case for going to war in Iraq.

Dyke, also chancellor of York University, was invited to do the lecture by Vice Chancellor Brian Cantor, who knew him from when he was VIce Chancellor of York before moving to Bradford.

Discussing his role at the BFI, he said: "When I had the interview I told them they weren't the British Film Institute, they were the London Film Institute." He said he was "excited" with the potential of Yorkshire for TV and film, and that it could rival London for producing drama. He added: "With the activity and possibilities of Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and York could become a hub for TV drama, just like Salford has become a hub of TV production." A number of high profile shows have recently been filmed in the area, including hit Peaky Blinders, which was filmed in Bradford in Keighley.

He referred to Bradford's Media Museum, Screen Yorkshire and film courses run at the University and Bradford College, adding: "There is a massive opportunity to join these threads together to create a new powerful force in one of the fastest growing industries in the country."

In the question and answer session, Mr Sutcliffe asked Mr Dyke if the license fee was the right way to pay for the BBC. He said: "I can't see it sustaining forever. If it started today and someone said: 'Anyone who wants to have any kind of TV has to pay a tax' it just wouldn't happen.

"However, the reason the country's TV industry is so successful is because we have that £3.5 billion coming in from the license. There needs to be money coming in, but there are many ways of this being delivered. I don't think the license is sustainable in the long term, but people were saying that 20/30 years ago. I wouldn't want us to lose what the BBC stands for."

Talking about his role in the FA, and the state of football, he said: "The problem with the game is it has increasingly little to do with England. Only 30 per cent of premier league players are from England, clubs are not managed by English managers and they are not owned by English owners. English football in being played in England, but the current game has very little English culture."

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He said one problem with the game was that too many "mediocre" foreign players were being brought into British clubs at the expense of British players working their way through the academy process.