TV’s class imbalance dominated this year’s Edinburgh festival, with an ‘impact unit’ dedicated to make the industry more accessible to working class voices launched off the back of Sherwood writer James Graham’s impassioned MacTaggart Lecture.
The TV Foundation’s programme director Gemma Bradshaw will create a pan-sector working group next month, with a view to measuring and monitoring improvements, establishing a set of expectations that employees can consider in career planning, and highlighting ‘class-confident’ employers.
The unit will report back at next year’s Edinburgh, when it will introduce a social mobility bursary.
Graham highlighted the disparity between the 8% of people who identify as working class in TV and the national average of 46-49%.
“They are the largest potential audience to reach for the content we make, yet they are the demographic least able to find a foothold in the industry to bring their experiences and stories to make that work.”
He suggested progress had been slow on class as it is less straightforward to define than other areas of diversity.
In a follow-up interview, he called for greater confidence in the potential for regional working-class stories to have international appeal, rather than falling back on safe nostalgic bets.
Delivering the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture, broadcaster and campaigner Carol Vorderman traced a direct line between the TV industry’s “snobbery” and the recent far-right riots.
“You cannot be an industry with the power to create the conversation and then claim nothing is your responsibility,” she said. “The two simply don’t add up.”
Vorderman said that the working class does not feel represented by TV and instead goes to social media, which is “decimating our industry as we know it”.
Meanwhile, consumer rights champion and presenter Martin Lewis called on TV to “clean its act up” on pay and working conditions, particularly for freelancers.
In an interview via Zoom, Lewis highlighted the “immediate class barrier” created by the “p***-poor” pay, and the industry’s “horrendous” treatment of freelancers.
Lewis said he had spoken directly to broadcast executives about his concerns regarding freelancers’ employment terms and conditions.
“If you want to retain better talent and bring them in from a wider cross-section, you have to look at the way you treat your staff,” he said. “It’s a poor investment, and it’s why many young people don’t last long in the industry.”
Elsewhere, Big Boys creator Jack Rooke said working class people feel “most seen” in comedy and questioned whether shows centred on working class characters get the budgets they deserve.
“My instinct – and this is not based on facts, it needs to be researched – from talking to my peers is that a lot of working class stories with working class characters have a tendency to shoot quicker and on less money”.
