Benefits Street
Benefits Street is a documentary series on the British television channel Channel 4. It started on 6 January 2014. Five episodes will be shown.[1] It is about some of the people who live on James Turner Street in Birmingham. 90% of the people on the street claim benefits. 4.3 million people watched the first episode. It was Channel 4's most-watched shown in more than a year.[2] It shows some people who claim benefits (claimants) doing crimes.
Criticism
changeAlmost 300 complaints were made to Ofcom after the first episode was shown.[3] Dee Roberts complained that she had been tricked into being on the programme. She said that the people on the programme thought the show was about a working class community, but that instead they had been portrayed as "complete scum".[4] Almost 10,000 people signed a petition asking Channel 4 to show no more episodes of the show.[5] Steve Haywood, a friend of an alcoholic in the programme known as Fungi, said that Channel 4 gave Fungi beer so that he would be on the show.[6]
References
change- ↑ Fletcher, Alex (10 January 2014). "Benefits Street: Have your say". Digital Spy.
- ↑ "Benefits Street: Why Shouldn't We Be Angry?". HuffPost UK. 9 January 2014.
- ↑ "Benefits Street prompts complaints". 8 January 2014 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- ↑ "Benefits Street where police are called to deal with crime EVERY MONTH". Mail Online. 8 January 2014.
- ↑ "Benefits Street petition gets 10,000 signatures". 9 January 2014.
- ↑ Lawton, Jerry (10 January 2014). "Residents of Benefits Street accuse Channel 4 of 'bribing' them with booze and burgers". Dailystar.co.uk.