Frances Hopkinson, Channel 4's senior commissioner for drama, has said that the genre needs to get "angrier" and tackle more controversial subjects including party politics.
Speaking at Sunday's session Drama Fights Back, Mr Hopkinson said that all broadcasters need to stir more controversy, including his own which has won plaudits for recent pieces about the Prime Minister and David Blunkett.
He said: "Drama needs to get angrier and more political, The government has been given a really easy ride so far and that must change. We need to challenge the reactionary consensus but also the soft left consensus as well in our work. Drama doesn't really upset people enough and it needs to do that."
He cited shows such as C4's the Deal, which fictionalised the meeting between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair when they thrashed out who would lead the party prior to Labour's 1997 election victory, and the David Blunkett Satire A Very Social Secretary as good examples of political drama.
But he also called for bolder pieces such as the sexually explicit drama about a group of young men called Men Only which caused controversy with an explicit scene of a gang rape.
"A few years ago, Channel 4 did a drama called Men Only and it was something that a lot of people liked and a lot of people didn't like but it was the first drama I have seen in a long time that people talked about and we need to do a lot more of that."
