Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime

Whilst calling out exploration of people on the Jeremy Kyle show this program manifests to exploit the very people again it pretends to stick up for. Infact it's embarrassing how it portrays these obvious vulnerable people.

A two part documentary series, that looks at the behind the scenes goings on, the people, and sudden axing of the Jeremy Kyle show.

Many people will have strong opinions, a show you either loved or hated, personally I loved it, ridiculous entertainment, I always assumed there was a hell of a lot of play acting, from guests and presenter alike, from a good background, he was there to put on a show.

I take issue with one point, this documentary is criticising the show for exploiting some of society's vulnerable people, this does just that, some of what you'll hear is a little bizarre, definitely very sad, the show did take advantage of some, but if anyone claimed they were going into this blind, I don't accept that. We don't learn anything that's surprising here, Jeremy had an enormous ego, he screams, shouts, rants and raves, has issues with those that don't work etc, I didn't think any of this was news.

The behind the scenes stuff is surprising, shocking almost, the death of Steve Diamond is of course tragic. One commentator states that the guests were all innocent, do me a favour, people saw an opportunity to appear on TV, scream and shout, and air their views.

Definite exploitation, but to say that it was all one way traffic, that's just wrong, this at times feels a little holier than thou, surely the 20000 people that appeared weren't all that naive?

6/10.

The Jeremy Kyle Show was cancelled in 2019 by ITV after 14 years on air. It was prompted by the death of Steve Dymond, who killed himself a few days after appearing on it.

The show was never broadcast. Soon after the cancellation there were comments made by former guests and production crew about just what a bear pit the show was.

How guests were manipulated to make themselves angry or over excited on television.

The production team were always under pressure to find shocking stories and guests that made good television.

The show was described as conflict resolution. Kyle provided tough love and lie detection tests. It was never stated that lie detection tests were unreliable. They were 60-70 percent accurate.

This Channel 4 documentary garnered good newspaper reviews. It talked to friends and family of several guests of the Jeremy Kyle show as well as former crew members.

There was unbroadcast footage of Kyle snarling at the studio audience. He seemed to have little time for addicts and chavs.

The latter is unsurprisingly. Kyle had a privileged upbringing. His father was a long time personal secretary to the Queen Mother. He went to a fee paying school. I guess Kyle knew little about people in actual poverty.

The former though he had experience of. He was once a gambling addict, it led to splitting up with his first wife after accumulating large debts. You would have thought Kyle would have more empathy.

As for the network that broadcast the show. ITV were happy with the gladiatorial format. As long as the show got ratings and attracted publicity, they turned a blind eye as to what happened behind the scenes.

The executives knew just how this kind of television shows were made. They quickly washed their hands off it when Dymond's death was reported. It was a tragedy that was waiting to happen. The surprise is that it did not happen years earlier.

As for this documentary. It was not that good. There was nothing here that was previously published in the newspapers or featured in discussion shows.

The second part was unintentionally hilarious in a Spinal Tap sort of the way.

A padded documentary featuring the tragedy of several former guests. A former drug addict who was exploited by Kyle to make good television. There is footage of Kyle shouting at her and calling her names.

She got drug rehab paid by the production crew but she later relapsed. I doubt the show could be held responsible for that. Kyle's attitude is unedifying though.

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

For fourteen years, The Jeremy Kyle Show was one of the top rated daytime talk shows, becoming a household name, of sorts. With his "straight talking, no nonsense" style, Kyle offered his (albeit unqualified) advice to a host of poor, socio-economically deprived guests, desperate for counselling and support, or just hoping for five minutes of cheap fame, with the support of his therapist sidekick Graham Stanier, and an aftercare support team. But it all came to a crashing halt in 2019 when a guest called Stephen Diamond committed suicide after failing a lie detector test, leading to its permanent cancellation. In this two part documentary, a series of people who worked behind the scenes lift the lid on the shocking truth of the underhand tactics that went on to make the show happen.

It's hard to comprehend now that not so long ago TJKS was, undeniably, a British institution. It had a fixed place in the pop culture of modern Britain ("he looks like someone off Jeremy Kyle...", you might hear someone say), but then it's also an interesting reflection of a shifting cultural attitude in Britain, toward people on the lower end of the social scale and their circumstances (the type of people with bad teeth, tattoos all down their arm, pockmarked faces that people *all of us at one time or another* liked to make fun of.) I don't know whether ratings were starting to drop towards the end of its run (but then, it had a consistent audience, mainly unemployed people who Kyle ironically might have told to 'get a job'), but I did feel it had started to wear out its welcome one way or the other. Sadly, it actually took the tragic death of a man for this to come to pass, and now, this documentary delves in to the behind the scenes workings that kept the devilish wagons of the show rolling.

It always struck me how an admittedly unqualified man was someone who would be turned to for advice on such sensitive issues for individuals, especially when he often spoke to people so disrespectfully and ignorantly, and this documentary reveals some secret, never before heard audio and studio recordings revealing just what an obnoxious, unpleasant jerk Kyle really was, saying what he feels to audience members, production staff and about guests unrestrained and without filter. It's clear his hideous show was always about his own self-aggrandisement ("...see that, it's called The Jeremy Kyle Show!!!", as he would often tell guests), and the offer of counselling was usually an act of desperation, since it's so hard to access for people on the lower end of the social strata. And so we hear of how guests were made to compete with other guests, being told there was only space available for one family, when there really wasn't, and how perfectly reasonable people were riled up, and poked and prodded by the crew to make them angry when they arrived on stage (most notoriously the infamous 'head butting' incident.) Most shockingly of all, we learn of the horrific inaccuracy of the 'lie detector tests', and how they are not relied on in court, and how this played a key part in the poor man's death.

Kyle now has a shadow of his former star quality as a host on Talk TV, along with a host of other uninformed, reactionary mouthpieces, but the legacy of his repulsive TV show is a glaring disparity between the haves and have nots in society, and something that must never be forgotten so it is never repeated. ****

The original Jeremy Kyle show was undeniably compelling - a modern day Roman amphitheatre full of intrigue and spectacle. Only Guardian readers wearing a beret and updating their FB status with "I'm jabbed for you" frames would pretend otherwise...in public at least. The main thing to remember here is that people CHOOSE to go on the show. This attempt at vilifying JK, who is an entertainer at the "end of the day" (to borrow a well used phrase from the show) is a hack job.

We hear from "actors" (who aren't very good at acting) who are playing the roles of alleged (I am dubious) JK staff. It's not convincing at all with their claims that JK is some kind of cult leader! Haha! What is true though is that JK IS a drama queen. But we know that from watching the show and don't need to see behind the scenes footage to know that. He is also undeniably rude at times and somewhat unpredictable. His style of interacting with guests is Good Cop-Bad Cop, with him playing both roles. He breaks the guest down initially like an Army Sargent Major, then builds them back up after capitulation with lots of positive affirmation and even hugging. Hardly the monster C4 wish he was.

On this point we need to remember two things; firstly, that JK would ALWAYS turn into good cop once they had admitted that what they were doing was wrong - which lets face it, it often was. Secondly, these people were most likely on that show as a result of having been through all the wishy washy person centred holistic style interventions that of course society prefers to receive because it rarely aims for accountability in the individual. Don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for the person centred approach, but there is also a time and place for good cop-bad cop with elements of CBT.

Anyone going on the show, had obviously seen the show themselves so knew exactly what they were getting themselves in for. They were also put up in a hotel with free food and drink and of course a very slim shot at fame. That is the guest's choice and their responsibility. Not JK's, yours or mine. Yes JK has been too harsh on some people, yes the premise is questionable and could have been done better. I am sure the lie detector didn't always get it right too, but this show is C4's woke one sided attempt at criticising JK, while at the same time broadcasting shows like Benefits Street, Big fat Gypsy Wedding where we see people fight and marry their own cousins - to dodgy documentaries about Princess Diana.

To C4, the ITV staff and other pretentious virtue signallers - get off your high horses and grow up. This is just ratings jealousy from C4. I'm off to watch JK now. :)