Carol Vorderman takes aim at ‘snobbery’ in TV industry

Carol Vorderman has said the TV industry is full of “snobbery” and no longer reflects British society, as she accused it of not reaching working class viewers.

The former Countdown star, 63, delivered the Alternative MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Friday.

She described herself as having been on thousands of shows over decades, “sacked by the BBC – twice – pain in the arse, lover of parties, post-menopausal”, and said she was standing “in anger and without apology” at the media event.

Vorderman said: “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.”

The maths expert, who grew up in poverty in Wales, said “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”.

She says working class people have increasingly turned to social media.

Vorderman said: “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.”

She also called television “a mess”, citing Ofcom figures that she said showed the “current decimation of broadcast television”.

The media regulator’s research, published in July, found that less than half of young people watch live television in the average week.

Viewers aged between 45 and 54 have also begun to turn away from linear television, with viewing rates in the age group falling from 89% to 84% in a single year.

Vorderman said: “People feel lost. They feel that the filter of their news, the filter through which they get their information, is one which isn’t recognised by them.”

She cited research from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which found under 10% of people from the TV, video, radio and photography sectors were from working class backgrounds last year.

Vorderman also took aim at the BBC over former news presenter Huw Edwards, who pleaded guilty to making child sex abuse images. She also cited the furore over Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker’s tweets about the previous government.

She said “trust in the BBC is declining”, which she said was understandable because of the way “people feel after so many controversial decisions by BBC management”.

Vorderman added: “Politics, arrogance, snobbery, disillusionment. They are all inextricably linked.

“The rich and powerful corrupting politics. The upper middles taking broadcast for themselves. The increasingly absurd right wing newspaper headlines being promoted by political programmes. What has this got to do with class? Everything. Literally everything.

“After 14 years of austerity and lying by the privileged political class, this country is in an absolute mess and the TV industry must accept part of the responsibility for that too, including the riots.”

She also said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s appearance on ITV celebrity competition show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! contributed towards “normalising” his views.

“Nigel Farage on I’m A Celebrity, ‘oh Nigel is just Nigel, nothing to do with me’ – what planet is that person on who thinks that?” Vorderman said.

Earlier in the week at the festival, ITV managing director Kevin Lygo defended Mr Farage being on the show.

“The audience is smart enough to make up their own mind,” he added.

“Honestly, it wasn’t meant to offend anyone.”

Vorderman also said that “bad actors are manipulating the fact that mainstream media may not speak the language of the working class”.

She added: “They are the bad actors in the mess, but we are giving them that gateway. We bear a responsibility for not giving the working class a voice within the industry and that has its knock-on effects, whether you like it or not.

“I hope the whole of this year’s TV Festival will really make you consider your own perceptions and that you ask yourself questions about class and opportunity, and the responsibility you hold in the future of this country.”

Vorderman has increasingly turned to political activism, including criticising the previous Conservative government, and is due to publish her book Out Of Order: What’s Gone Wrong With Britain And One Woman’s Mission To Fix It, in September.