Lorraine Kelly says working-class individuals are being “left behind” in TV roles, as broadcasters attempt for higher range on display screen.
Kelly, 65, comes from a Scottish working-class background.
She grew to become a journalist at an area newspaper, then labored for the BBC and later became a reporter at TV-am before taking the position as host of ITV talk show Lorraine.
Speaking on Times Radio’s The Ladder show and podcast with Cathy Newman, Kelly agreed that while gender and racial diversity were rightly receiving attention, socioeconomic diversity was often left out of the conversation.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s absolutely right that everybody gets a chance,” she said.
“It shouldn’t matter what colour you are, what age you are, all of these things. It’s all about ‘can you do the job? Do you deserve a chance?’”
Kelly said the playing field should be levelled, but “sometimes working-class people get left behind”.
The majority of her viewers and readers were working-class people, she said.
“Their voice is really, really important.
“It’s kind of like taking the nation’s pulse in a way and it does worry me that that doesn’t happen. Which is why I really try to always give encouragement to anybody, but particularly working-class kids … all over the country.”
In 2024, at the TV Baftas, Kelly called for action to help people from working-class backgrounds break into the industry, and more opportunities outside London, as she collected a special award.
“I don’t think they would have the same opportunities that I had, and a lot of it is financial. When I went down to London and they gave me the job … it’s so expensive. It’s so obvious, isn’t it?
“You’re cutting an awful lot of people out. I honestly wouldn’t have been able to afford to live in London, but for the fact that TV-am helped me.”
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Kelly has beforehand mentioned she was advised she would by no means make it on the display screen due to her Scottish accent.
Final weekend, BBC chairman Samir Shah advised the Instances the broadcaster wants “extra selection” and “range of thought” in addition to extra workers who’re “northern working-class”.
Fewer than 10 per cent of individuals from the TV, video, radio and pictures sectors had been from working-class backgrounds in 2023, in line with the Inventive Industries Coverage and Proof Centre.
On the 2024 Edinburgh TV Pageant, former Countdown star Carol Vorderman and This Is England playwriter and Sherwood creator James Graham known as for extra working-class tales and other people within the trade.
