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Hello everyone, Carol Vorderman reporting for Alternative Mactaggart duty after 42 years on screen hosting for all major TV channels at some point or other, on the first ever show on Channel 4 and about 10,000 shows since then, sacked by the BBC – twice, pain in the arse, lover of parties, post-menopausal, and I stand here in anger and without apology.
The subject – very dear to my heart, and my own background is television, snobbery and London.
“It’s who you know – not what you know” in television, an industry dominated by nepotism, run by the upper middle class – not my words but those from Channel 4 News in May when it revealed that just 8% of film and TV workers are from working class backgrounds, the lowest in a decade. Yes, it’s getting worse.
And by the way, most of those who manage to push through into the ranks have to be based in London.
A “shameless” industry?
To be discussed.
If there is a ‘we’, then let’s be open about what ‘we’ are.
Some data: According to the first report of its kind by Sage Journals recently, here’s the checklist to get into the creative industries as a whole… if you’re from London, and you’re born into an upper middle class (managerial) family, and particularly if you’re born with the one thing which grants you greater talent and more insight and creative juices, if you have the one thing above all other things – a penis – it means you have more than four times the opportunity of entry (excuse the expression) than all others.
Much as you may not like it, the truth is that being a part of television nowadays is akin to getting on in the Conservative party.
Coming to Screens Near you – Snobbery. Such a Turn off
The truth is, your family background, where you went to school, and if you live and are active in London – these are the three factors which will largely determine whether or not you even get your foot through the door, let alone rise through the ranks.
Yes, our industry is an industry of snobbery, regional snobbery, class snobbery and educational snobbery. And don’t even get me started on the political issues.
Really Carol? You’re up there lecturing us on what we think and who we are? Who the hell do you think you are woman?
Well, in this Alternative Mactaggart I’ll tell you who I am, give you the facts about our industry and most importantly, the responsibility this industry holds, both directly and indirectly, for the state we find our country in, including in part the recent riots.
And how the increasing and enormous disconnect between working class people, about half of our population, who find our middle class TV sofas, our discussion shows, and particularly our political programmes awash with views given by those with acceptable accents of received pronunciation, the same faces talking to the same faces in the same conversations.
Those working class people feel they are not represented. Their situation is not represented. The lack of opportunities, and lack of money, and jobs, is not represented, and so where do they go – they go to social media in their droves.
For the first time ever, a massive quarter of people in the UK are not watching broadcast television on a weekly basis and the annual rate of decline is so large it’s likely that within five years, less than half of the UK population will be with us at all.
The disconnect is real.
Fact: we live in a time when people have never felt more out of touch with those in power. Of those who could have registered (not all were registered) and voted in the General Election in July, only 52% bothered to do so.
And that was with the worst set of politicians in my lifetime.
Stories of corruption. Partygate. VIP PPE lane. The betting scandal. Three Prime Ministers within a matter of months. The lettuce. The billionaire. The Liar in Chief. The tax dodging. The corruption.
You would imagine that voters would turn up in their droves. But, they didn’t. Politicians out of touch? You betcha.
The Westminster Bubble out of touch? Never more so.
Television itself out of touch? We’ll come to the numbers shortly.
Turning to Social Media
Social media – no longer the new kid, more like the badly behaved Uncle, has changed our society and its rules, and it is decimating our industry as we know it. And with good reason.
What it gives everyone, in towns and cities outside the wealthy South East, the opportunity to do, is to see and hear views they recognise, in language they recognise.
No longer is there the need to go through the filter of a producer, or a commissioning editor, or someone who has never been to my town or my city or my region, who has no idea how people like me live and the worries we have.
I’ll go to Facebook or X or Insta or TikTok or the plethora of other platforms and there I will see myself and my life reflected.
The Poverty Trap
I was born into poverty. Last year The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that moving up the social ladder in Britain has become harder than at any point in the last 50 years for children born into poor households.
More using foodbanks. More homeless. More in need of dire financial help. More, more, more, having less, less, less.
They also found that what is important to upper middles is not important to working class people.
I find it extraordinary that most in television think differently to our audience, it’s incomprehensible that there is this lack of true understanding. And it’s coming with a heavy price.
Let’s look at some numbers shall we?
TV – an Unholy Spiral of Decline
I like numbers – they tell us stories – differently perhaps to prose, but stories nonetheless.
Television is in a mess.
C