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The real cost of lockdown
he coronavirus outbreak has left much of the television workforce idle, with most TV production suspended since March. Freelancers, who account for 100,000 of the total TV and film workforce of 180,000, have been dealt the rawest of deals. They have been hit hardest by the lockdown – 93% are out of work, according to The Film and TV Charity. Worse, according to the charity’s CEO, Alex Pumfrey: “Three-quarters of freelancers working within the television sector have been unable to access the Government’s employment and self-employment support schemes.” Financial woes have exacerbated the mental-health problems that were already known to affect so many TV workers before the pandemic. Mental
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Television’s freelance workforce is suffering mentally and financially from the impact of the pandemic ill health is widespread. The Film and TV Charity says almost nine in every 10 people in the industry have experienced problems, compared with 65% in the UK population as a whole. Covid-19 has made a bad situation worse. “Research done across the UK has shown a huge spike in anxiety and depression around 24 March,” revealed Pumfrey. She was one of the panellists at an online event, hosted by the RTS and The Film and TV Charity in June, which asked whether the industry has
been doing enough to keep its people safe and well. The prospects for young people trying to break into television appear particularly bleak, certainly in the short term. RTS bursary student Charlie McMorine, who had finished university and was awaiting his results, said the Covid-19 crisis had been extremely stressful: “For us, as graduates, we don’t know when we will be able to make our break into the industry. We don’t know how to move forward.” The Film and TV Charity unveiled some sobering research at the event. The most common words used by freelancers to describe their treatment by the industry, said Pumfrey, were “disposable” and “expendable”. Bullying, she noted, was still “incredibly prevalent”. Partly, this reflected the
