This was one of the key findings of new research undertaken by the BBC looking at a style of television often described as “poverty porn” by TV reviewers.
The study was unveiled at a conference in Manchester, Who Benefits? TV and Poverty.
The event was backed by the RTS, the BBC, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.
Click here to watch the full video of the event.
Channel 4 has commissioned the writers Tracey Malone (Silent Witness) and Kate Ashfield (Line of Duty) for their first drama series as a duo.
The psychological thriller, under working title Born to Kill, will be made by World Productions, and looks into the mind of a teenage boy who suppresses psychopathic desires.
Brought forward in response to the terrorist attacks in Paris, this unsettling documentary investigates the women who support ISIS right here in the UK. Undercover reporting exposes the secret meetings and alarming reality of a domestic threat.
The classic sitcom no longer rules the TV schedules in the way that shows such as Fawlty Towers, Open All Hours and Porridge did in the 1970s. Or does it?
A panel of TV practitioners attempted to tease out the answer last month at an RTS early-evening event, “No laughing matter: how does comedy fight back?” This stimulating debate made one think that we could be living through another golden age of TV comedy without necessarily knowing it.
As a child, Jack Thorne was a devoted TV viewer who’d some-times risk compromising his personal hygiene – all for the sake of his favourite programmes. He was reluctant to leave the box’s magical embrace and delayed taking a shower until the commercial break rolled round.
“That’s fine when you’re eight, but less good when you’re 14,” says Thorne. He has a wide, open face, which lights up like a Belisha beacon when he recalls his childhood and adolescent TV addiction.
This September saw the launch of Channel 4's unsettling reality series Hunted, in which groups of "fugitives" attempted to go off the grid and escape capture by the expert "hunters" who used surveillance technology to track them down. Audience ratings averaged 2.2million per episode, with no financial prize for any triumphant fugitives. This time, there's £100,000 up for grabs if they're able to avoid and outsmart the hunters for up to 28 days.
When Ofcom holds its final board meeting of 2015 in December, it will have a list of the candidates competing to be the next Chair of Channel 4. At the top of the list will be Mark Price, outgoing Chief Executive of Waitrose and Deputy Chair of John Lewis.
The advert for the post – a hugely sensitive one, as the Government explores the possibility of selling off Channel 4 – was hurried out on 10 October by favoured headhunter Dom Loehnis of Egon Zehnder, with a closing date of 16 November.
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney's acerbic comedy about a couple who get pregnant after a one-week-stand was one of this year's funniest new sitcoms. The second series has just started on Channel 4, and it's just as sharp, vulgar, and uproariously funny as the first. In the opening two episodes, the pair are adjusting to family life - and try to rekindle their romance with an ill-fated minibreak to Paris.
Fonejacker writer and star Kayvan Novak has been commissioned to present spoof news bulletins under the working title Britain Today, Tonight.
The comedian will be disguised as a range of personalities including politicians and an American news anchor. He will also spend part of the new show winding up members of the public and pulling pranks on celebrities and politicians.
