Producers on The Jeremy Kyle Show ‘lied to guests’
PRODUCERS on lied to families by telling them they had to compete for places in rehabilitation centres, a new documentary claims.
The ITV show was cancelled after one contributor, Steve Dymond, took his own life. Days earlier, he had failed a lie detector test on the programme, and his last text messages included: “I hope The Jeremy Kyle Show is so happy now. They are responsible for what happens.”
Four whistle-blowers who worked on the show provided testimony for a Channel 4 documentary, Jeremy Kyle: Death on Daytime. The whistle-blowers – three members of the production team and one cameraman – said they were encouraged to lie to guests to make them act in desperate ways.
Relatives of drug addicts were allegedly told that several other families were in the studio and that only one place at a rehabilitation centre was available – suggesting that they would be favoured if they appeared particularly desperate during filming. “That’s when the lies would start. They thought other families were in the corridor,” said one whistleblower, who claimed that bosses on the show were aware of the lies.
All the production staff spoke to the programme on condition of anonymity, and their words were spoken by actors.
Another claimed the team had a “God complex” and manipulated workingclass contributors because “the working-class people weren’t as clever, they wouldn’t question you”. She added that the team received “two calls a week” from contributors threatening to take their own lives after appearing on the show, and that “it was your job with no mental health expertise to determine if they were telling the truth”.
Adrian Hughes attempted to take his own life after failing a lie detector test on the show in 2015. His former partner Emma Ibbertson claimed to Channel 4 that she informed The Jeremy Kyle Show of the attempt, but the episode was still broadcast.
An ITV spokesman said: “ITV does not accept the central allegation of this programme of a ‘bad culture’ within the production team. ITV would never condone any of its production staff misleading or lying to guests.”