Benefits Street residents subjected to death threats after Channel 4 show airs
An independent TV production company approached me to ask if I could help them find the most deprived rural community in England with a view to producing a documentary. I said having seen a few minutes of the character assassination of Scunthorpe arising from “Skint” they could find someone else to give them a lead for a salacious intrusion into the lives of real people for “docu-entertainment.”
This article which profiles the damage such programmes can have makes me feel highly justified. Not all people on benefits are cheats. I would like to see a programme based on the hard working lives of low paid rural workers suffering “in work poverty” – like the farmers Jessica and I met in County Durham who get by on £3-5K a year and sometimes choose to feed their stock rather than themselves. It tells us
Police are investigating death threats made against five members of the public who starred in Channel 4’s latest documentary Benefits Street.
The first episode of the Birmingham-based show, which focuses on the poor residents of James Turner Street in Winson Green, aired on Monday night.
Shortly after the broadcast began, aggressive and abusive messages were posted on social media by viewers enraged at the ‘benefits spongers’ presented on the programme.