class & Social equality
class in the tv industry
“People from a working class background] are the largest potential audience for the content we make. Yet they are the least able to find a foothold in the industry to bring their experience and their stories to work in an environment that makes them feel safe”
James Graham, playwright and dramatist, The James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture 2024
LET'S TALK ABOUT CLASS
Working class audiences are TVs largest potential audience. Viewers want authentic representation of working-class lives and programme makers should care about the best way to do that.
Class cuts across everything. The enduring stereotype of what it means to be British and working class downplays the shared cultural and economic experience of working class communities across the country. Intersectionality is central to our understanding of class. For an industry with creativity at its heart, diversity and recognising the many parts of our identity that we bring to our work is essential.
TV is a tough industry for anyone to get in and get on in. Add a few more hurdles – like growing up without a financial safety net, not living near a production hub or not knowing any telly people – and it can feel impossible. With the current crisis in TV making things even more precarious, TV teams could represent their audience even less.
And when that happens there’s a commercial impact too.
Our Class and Social Equality Working Group brings together TV professionals from across the industry to find practical actions to redress the class balance in the TV industry.
First step: understanding the state of the industry.
Our report Let’s Talk About Class: Appealing to the UK’s largest audience, found that nearly 1 in 4 people in senior TV roles have the cultural and economic advantages of a private school education, that is over three times higher than the 7.5% of the general population who are privately educated.
Second step: Class Confident Actions
At the TV Foundation we want to support organisations – big and small – that are innovating and leading the cultural shift we need to make the TV industry class confident.
Our Class Confident Actions are a step towards improving class representation. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we want to recognise people on this journey with us. We want to celebrate and reward anyone in the industry already passionate about taking action.
In 2025 we supported TV professionals from working class backgrounds to attend the TV Festival with Impact Bursaries.
In 2026 we’ll be going even further with tangible benefits for organisations that can show they’re implementing our Class Confident Actions: we will widen free access to the TV Festival; offer special exclusive rates for TV Festival passes and awards entries; and find ways to promote your best practices.
Class Confident Actions will also be added to the judging criteria for awards such as the Indie Impact Award, which is the culmination of our annual New Voice Awards.
CLASS CONFIDENT ACTIONS: GETTING STARTED
These actions should be seen as prompts to find the right solutions for you and your organisation, whether you’re a big broadcaster or a small indie.
All of the actions are relevant to anyone you’re working with, whether they are on staff contracts or freelancers, whether they work in London or across the UK’s regions.
Successful applicants will join a peer-learning network to share best practice and learn from the challenges they have faced. They will also benefit from discounted rates to the Edinburgh TV Festival 2026.
To view a PDF of the Class Confident Actions, click here.
CLASS CONFIDENT ORGANISATIONS
We’re growing a movement of Class Confident organisations across the TV industry. They have all committed to remove barriers for people from working class backgrounds to work in TV. Join them.
Air TV
All3Media
Banijay UK
BBC
BBC Studios
Blue Zoo Productions Ltd
Candour Productions Ltd
Channel 4
CPL Productions Ltd
Curious Films
Eleventh Hour Films
Fremantle UK
Hat Trick Productions
ITV
Mam Tor Productions
Multitude Media
Objective Media
Paramount
Raise The Roof Productions
South Shore
Stellify Media NI Ltd
Studio Lambert
The Farm
The Garden Production
The TV Foundation
True North Productions LTD
Woodcut Media
XXIV Communications
Yeti Television
Zinc Media Group Plc
FESTIVAL BURSARIES
We’re delighted to announce that this year the Edinburgh TV Festival has been able to offer 60 Impact Bursaries funded by Fremantle, for people from working class backgrounds working in TV to attend the Festival for free.
This is part of our work to make the Edinburgh TV Festival more accessible to all. Over 200 bursaries have been offered to people from across the industry for the 2025 Edinburgh TV Festival. The TV Foundation’s ongoing work on class and social equality is supported by Fremantle, Channel 4, Rough Assembly and Sky.
Class and Social Equality Working Group
We are convening a working group to show it can be possible for people from a working class background to have a career in the industry.
Twenty-four TV professionals, including a range of voices, from freelancers to CEO, and producers to writers, will help steer our work on class and social equality. They will all bring personal experience and strong and passionate perspectives, on what needs to change to address socio-economic diversity within the industry.
Amongst the first tasks to be addressed will be to:
- raising the visibility of people from working class backgrounds already in the industry;
- understanding the current landscape and its effects on recruitment from different socio-economic groups;
- defining what a Class Confident organisation in TV looks like.
Members of the working group are:
- Alison Ramsay, Freelance Director & Development Exec
- Amber Haque, Freelance Presenter & Documentary Maker
- Bradley Down, BBC Drama Commissioning Executive
- Ceri Aston, Creative Director, MultiStory Media (part of ITV Studios)
- Chanise Evans, BBC Presenter, Senior Advisor
- David Leach, Head of Unscripted / Development Exec, Climate Spring
- David Macpherson, Freelance Writer
- Emma Morris, Executive Editor of Morning Live and The One Show, BBC Studios
- Gama Gbio, Freelance Development Producer
- Gina Lyons, Founder, Gobby Girl Productions
- Hannah Livingston, Freelance Shooting Producer / Director
- Jackie Myburgh, Apple TV+ Head of Production, UK & Europe
- Jon Green, Creative Director, Unscripted Formats, Fulwell 73
- Karl Warner, EVP UK Entertainment and Digital Development, BBC Studios
- Lisa Gifford, Freelance Screenwriter
- Lucie Duxbury, Head of Programmes, The Garden
- Luke Seraphin, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Sky Original Programming
- Mark Wynter, General Manager, The Farm
- Neila Butt, Creative Equity Lead, Channel 4
- Nicola Crowther, Head of Audience Engagement / Co-chair of BBC RAISED
- Patrick Holland, Chair and CEO, Banijay UK
- Sabrina Parmar, Assistant Commissioner, Sky
- Tammie Meera Ash, Freelance Assistant Producer
- Tessa Matchett, Head of Group Communications, ITV Studios