A leading MP has likened The Jeremy Kyle Show to the Roman coliseum and condemned ITV for its “lack of contrition” over how the controversial programme was run.
Production of the daytime TV show, which was cancelled in May 2019 following the death of a guest, was scrutinised during the second session of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s inquiry into the future of public service broadcasting, held on Tuesday morning.
Committee chair Julian Knight criticised the programme for the “psychological exposure of very vulnerable people” to the public eye, as he quizzed Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, over her role in allowing the show to be aired.
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Asked if she was proud to head up the company that ran The Jeremy Kyle Show for as long as it did, Dame Carolyn said: “It was a highly regulated show, it was a conflict resolution show, it was not to everyone’s tastes.
“It may surprise you to know that I actually got hundred of emails complaining about stopping the show when we stopped it because they thought it was their own outlet of being able to listen and understand problems that were in their own lives.”
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AFP via Getty
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Action Images via Reuters
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AFP via Getty
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PA
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Getty
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32/50 12 June 2020A Black Lives Matter supporter sings to crowds who marched with her in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square in London. The death of an African American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world
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Getty
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PA
35/50 9 June 2020Protestors hold placards and shout slogans during during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign calling for the removal of the statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes outside Oriel College, at the University of Oxford
AFP via Getty
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PA
37/50 7 June 2020The Edward Colston statue has been pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol. Colston was a 17th century slave trader who has numerous landmarks named after him in Bristol
SWNS
38/50 6 June 2020Children pose for their family in front of discarded placards fixed on a wall in Piccadilly Gardens after a Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Manchester. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world
Getty
39/50 5 June 2020Protesters kneel in Trafalgar Square during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London, England. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world
Getty
40/50 4 June 2020Protestors march from Windsor Castle in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement
Getty
41/50 3 June 2020People wearing face masks hold banners in Hyde Park during a Black Lives Matter protest following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis
Reuters
42/50 2 June 2020Street artist Nath Murdoch touches up his anti-racism mural in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
PA
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Getty
44/50 31 May 2020A man wearing a protective face mask kneels in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd near the U.S. Embassy, London, Britai
Reuters
45/50 30 May 2020Visitors at Grassholme Reservoir in Lunedale, Co Durham are able to cross an ancient packhorse bridge as work on the dam wall means water levels have dropped signifcantly to reveal this monument of the pas
UK
46/50 29 May 2020British Tennis player Maia Lumsden in action at Bridge of Allan Tennis Club. People can meet family and friends outdoors and play sports such as golf and tennis again as the country is moving into phase one of the Scottish Government’s plan for gradually lifting lockdown
PA
47/50 28 May 2020A police frogman, searches for a weapon in Abington Lake in in Northampton
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48/50 27 May 2020Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears before the Liaison Committee via Zoom from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street, amid the coronavirus
10 Downing Street/Reuters
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50/50 25 May 2020Dominic Cummings, senior aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, makes a statement inside 10 Downing Street, London, over allegations he breached coronavirus lockdown restrictions
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Referring to clips of behind-the-scenes footage the committee was previously shown, Mr Knight said: “Frankly they are outrageous, these were people who were taken off screen and presented with an individual who was meant to be a psychiatric counsellor and they were filmed during these processes.
“They were baited over a long period of time. My jaw is dropping at the lack of contrition here from ITV and from yourself as a chief executive.”
The footage, first viewed by the committee last October, showed that guests were filmed backstage and in dressing rooms. Mr Kyle was seen using “abusive language” which “could be edited out of the broadcasted show”. It “makes a mockery of the ‘aftercare’ [ITV] has claimed to provide,” the panel said at the time.
Dame Carolyn said that while the programme did “polarise opinion” over the course of its 15 years on air, more than 1 million people watched it every day on ITV.
“Everyone on that show knew what the show was, it was informed consent, it was adults, they went through a screening and vetting process, they went through quite a lot of hoops before they went on that show, but it was conflict resolution – it was not always comfortable to view, yet people viewed it,” she said.
Mr Knight later said: “The Roman coliseum held 55,000, it doesn’t mean because it was popular it was right.”
The ITV chief executive the programme had been regulated for 15 years, to which Mr Knight replied: “Not well enough.”
He added: “I’m just astounded that you don’t accept the premise that this programme itself, although it ran for 15 years and seemingly was highly popular, it involved the psychological, not torture, but the psychological exposure of very vulnerable people to often public … people who were out there in the public domain who should have not been in the public domain.
“I’m just surprised you can’t see that perhaps that was the wrong step and perhaps ITV should have ended it earlier, and perhaps we shouldn’t see its like on TV again.”
The Jeremy Kyle Show was first broadcast on ITV in July 2005. It featured members of the public attempting to resolve sensitive issues such as extramarital affairs, addiction and familial conflicts.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk