Craft service

Craft service is the department on a film or television production concerned with feeding the cast and crew. The department is necessary for many reasons, but largely because it is far more economic to provide the production team with on-site, regularly-timed meals than it is to lose time by allowing an off-site break for lunch. Regular food breaks are also required by both local labour laws and most of the unions who represent those who work in the industry.

Despite the ubiquity of craft services in the BBC Wales era — and the fact that craft services personnel have been seen several times on Doctor Who Confidential — the credit has only been extended once in this history of DWU productions: for the 1996 telemovie. The likely reason: the movie was a fully IATSE-accredited production. IATSE considers crafts services personnel a part of the production crew and part of the way in which they look after their members is to insist on such crediting.