Confronting TV’s mental health crisis

Over the course of 2019, mental health shot right to the top of TV industry agenda.

High profile cases, such as the suicides of contestants who have appeared on shows such as Love Island and The Jeremy Kyle Show, have forced TV executives in the UK to take more account of the well-being of the participants on programmes.

The Harvey Weinstein revelations have also led to a closer examination of the culture of the creative industry itself. Within society at large, awareness of mental health is much higher too; in the UK, Prince William and Prince Harry have talked openly about their mental well-being, helping to reduce the stigma that used to be associated with mental health.

Last year, The Film and TV Charity conducted the Looking Glass survey to research the well-being of TV workers. It was astonished to receive nearly 9,000 responses in just three weeks, a far higher number than it had anticipated.

“The responses flooded in,” says The Film and TV Charity’s CEO Alex Pumfrey, describing a “huge outpouring of emotion” and “pent up feelings” in the replies.

The full findings of the survey will be released this month, but early figures show that the proportion of people in the film and TV industries who have experienced mental ill-health is…