Back to back psychological carnage. It will haunt me for the rest of my days … What was shocking to see first hand was that sneering, the snarling, the aggression, the way that he would abuse these people. ibid.
I worked on the show where I was manipulated. My friend killed herself. That is a heavy load to deal with. Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime II
What the hell, they didn’t stop the programme for my wife when she killed herself after being on the Jeremy Kyle Show. ibid. bloke
There are so many times when I thought that test is wrong. ibid. worker
The horrors that were being committed in the bowels of that building that can never be scrubbed from those walls ever. ibid. whistleblower cameraman
24th October 2002 9.15 a.m. Channel 5 The Wright Stuff: ‘So the three women we know of who are pointing the finger at John Leslie, one of them has got a book out …’ The Rise and Fall of John Leslie, Channel 5 2022
In 2002 TV presenter John Leslie is the man who has everything. With several hit TV shows under his belt, John Leslie becomes a household name as a presenter of the daily magazine show This Morning. ibid.
One morning his career and reputation comes crashing down. ibid.
In 1994 John Leslie says goodbye to the famous Blue Peter studio. ibid.
By now over 30 women have come forward to accuse John Leslie of a range of allegations. ibid.
In 1962 two men would take on the roles that would define them for the next twenty years. Steptoe & Son would become a British sitcom classic introducing us to iconic characters and catch-phrases. The show made Wilfred Bramble and Harry H Corbett international stars. But it would also throw a spotlight on some painful secrets and a very public scandal. Steptoe & Son: Secrets & Scandals, Channel 5 2022
So how did a sitcom get so big that even repeats were so popular they might swing an election? ibid.
A claustrophobic tale of working class struggle. The Offer became the pilot episode of Steptoe & Son. ibid.
Wilfred Bramble was leading a secret double life; like so many men at that time he was forced to conduct his private life with the utmost stealth at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. But the first series of Steptoe had made the now 50-year-old Bramble a star. ibid.
Steptoe found guilty. ibid. The Mirror 13 December 1962
He kept his role and the series survived. ibid.
He took refuge in alcohol. At first the extent of his addiction was known only to a few. Bramble’s drinking was beginning to have an effect on those around him. And his alcoholism would continue to cause problems throughout the entire future of the show. ibid.
‘They set the scene: a young man trying to escape.’ ibid.
A masterclass in both comedy and drama. ibid.
Gypsy’s kiss: piss. ibid.
It was the biggest TV music show of all time. A mainstay of our lives for over 40 years. But behind the scenes, Top of the Pops was chaotic, crazy and very nearly calamitous. Top of the Pops: Secrets & Scandals, Channel 5 2022
Shocking stories of drugs, demanding divas, teatime nudity, and technical disasters. But also the show’s decline and a tarnished legacy. ibid.
With a limited budget on the earliest shows, there were no facilities for the bands to perform live. ibid.
In 2006 the BBC announced that the show would be axed. ibid.
Hawaii Five-O made its debut in September 1968. 1968: A Year of War, Turmoil and Beyond, Sky Arts 2018
This is Your Life ... This kind of television was here to say. Ian Hislop’s Stiff Upper Lip: An Emotional History of Britain III: Last Hurrah? BBC 2012
In December 1983 a man walked free from prison after serving six years of a sentence for a murder which he did not commit: his name was Mervyn Jock Russell and he was the first man in British history to have a conviction quashed as a result of a television programme … In the 1980s British television led by a series called Rough Justice mounted a sustained attack on the British criminal justice system uncovering miscarriage after miscarriages. Retrial by TV: The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice, BBC 2011
The Judiciary struck back. It was a system in denial. ibid.
It would run on the BBC for twenty-five years. ibid.
Rough Justice knew that the only thing that would sway appeal court evidence is new evidence. ibid.
This was a time of very different police procedure. ibid.
Such clashes between government and media were becoming commonplace. ibid.
But [Justice] Lane also decreed that while [Anthony] Mycock was innocent, the burglary itself had indeed happened, and his judgment carried the hint of trouble ahead. ibid.
They themselves had become the story. ibid.
Guildford 4 and Birmingham 6 … The clamour to free them had reached fever pitch … It should have been central to the debate. ibid.
37 out of 38 convictions brought to the Court of Appeal were quashed. ibid.
In 1992 it was reduced to 1 case per year. ibid.
Criminal Justice Review Commission … Argued for since the 1960s. ibid.
Philip Schofield lays into Corbyn for Labour’s anti-Semitism scandal and forces him to apologise live on This Morning. The Sun online article 3 December 2019
A revolution in television: the reality game-show. The 2000s: The Decade We Saw It All I, National Geographic 2017
Frank Bough was one of Britain’s favourite celebrities. The safe reliable beloved uncle Frank. But it turns out TV’s Mr Clean had a secret life and a taste for illicit sex and illegal drugs. Bough’s spectacular fall from grace shocked the nation. Frank Bough: National Treasure, National Disgrace, Channel 5 2023
Rumours are circulating about his behaviour on the set too. ibid.
Unbelievably, just a year after being fired form the BBC, Bough returns to out TV screens. One of the astonishing comebacks in the history of British entertainment. He is fronting six o’clock live on London Weekend Television. ibid.
Bough’s very public falls from grace in 1988 and 1992 are a turning point. ibid.
Early on, Corbyn and Johnson had to go on this sort of game show … Corbyn had these off-putting glasses and Johnson was like a failed reboot of the Honeymonster making a court appearance. Cunk & Other Humans on 2019 VI, BBC 2019
How ya diddling? Well bloody sod ya then. All right, Bobby Chariot here, top warm up man ... The All New Alexei Sayle Show s1e2, BBC 1994
Bobby Chariot: … Despite me own personal troubles, you know. Despite the fact that me wife’s got me house. And I’m living in me Jag. And I’m on pills for me nerves … The All New Alexei Sayle Show s1e3
Kicked me out me wife, you know. Separated me from me kids and that, you know. I’m a bit depressed. I’m sleeping in me Jag, you know. I’m on pills for me nerves … The All New Alexei Sayle Show s1e5
I like always to have an exploratory before I go on television. There’s a check-up. And er he gave me the thumbs up, he did. Barry Humphries as Dame Edna Everage, cited Barry Humphries at the BBC, 2003
How has propaganda through television been used in the past? … Davos 2007: Rupert Murdoch … admitted openly that he used his media empire to try to sell the American public on Bush’s Iraq War policies. The Corbett Report: Tell-Lie-Vision, James Corbett online 2023
Television is, has been and presumably will continue to be used to try to shape public opinion on key and important events. ibid.
Over the past decade or more there has been a steadily declining trust in establishment media institutions. ibid.
What we saw [is] the corporatisation of media in the 20th century. ibid.
What is it about white actors putting on make-up to play black characters? Scenes like these are usually edited out if the movies are shown on TV. Others have been gathering dust on shelves. David Harewood on Blackface, BBC 2023
An artform that was once mainstream British culture. Iibid.
At its peak the BBC’s Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by audiences of over 20 million people. ibid.