Rethinking class in the UK TV industry
Rethinking Class in the UK TV Industry examines how class shapes the production, representation, and reception of British television drama.
Hosted by Professor Beth Johnson, the series draws together researchers, creatives, and industry leaders to reflect on the structural and cultural forces that frame who gets to tell stories, how those stories are told, and how audiences encounter them.
Through these conversations, the podcast opens up new ways of thinking about inequality, creativity, and change in UK television.
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Episodes
Monday Nov 03, 2025
Monday Nov 03, 2025
Recorded live at the University of Leeds during the What’s Class Got to Do with It? Symposium in October 2025, this special episode explores how social class shapes the television industry - from who makes TV drama to what stories reach our screens and how audiences interpret them.
Hosted by Professor Beth Johnson, Principal Investigator on the three-year AHRC-funded project What’s On? Rethinking Class in the TV Industry, the discussion brings together leading academics, industry professionals, and creatives including Professor Dave O’Brien, Dr Laura Minor, Professor Helen Wood, screenwriter Philip Ralph, and BBC Head of Audience Engagement and Impact Nicola Crowder.
Together, they unpack urgent questions about inequality, representation, and precarity in the TV sector - asking how class intersects with gender, race, and disability, and how the industry can better reflect the diversity of everyday life. Delegates and guests from across academia and broadcasting share their insights into how class still matters in the making and meaning of television.
This episode captures the energy and conversation of a day-long symposium that forms part of the What’s On? project’s mission to rethink how class operates in TV production, programming, and reception - and why now, more than ever, those conversations are needed.
Host
Beth Johnson, Principal Investigator of What’s On? Rethinking class in the TV Industry; Professor of Television and Media Studies, University of Leeds
Guests
Nicola Crowther, Head of Audience Engagement and Impact, BBC
Philip Ralph, Award-winning writer for television, film, stage and radio
Laura Minor, Co-investigator, What’s On? University of Salford
Dave O’Brien, Co-investigator, What’s On? University of Manchester
Helen Wood, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, Aston University
Credits
Podcast recording and editing: Carl Hartley, University of Leeds
The What’s On? team are: Beth Johnson (PI), Laura Minor (Co-I), Dave O’Brien (Co-I) and Anna Viola Sborgi (PDRF)
The What’s On? Rethinking Class in the TV Industry Research Project is funded by the AHRC.
Vox contributorsVicky Ball (De Monfort University), Mark Taylor (University of Sheffield), Fran Riando (Brunel University, London).