Entertainment and factual programmes

ITV soaps and dramas feature diverse characters and storylines, our reality shows include contestants from diverse backgrounds, and our daytime and factual programmes frequently highlight and tackle social issues affecting minority groups.

Ethnicity

ITV programmes are representative of Britain’s cultural diversity. In 2009, 8.1% of people on screen on ITV1 were black, Asian or another ethnic minority, compared with 7.9% of people nationally. (1) Most represented is the black population, with 5% representation on screen compared with around 2% nationally.

We aim to authentically represent ethnic minorities in characters and storylines in mainstream programmes, and do not make niche programmes for, or featuring, particular minorities. For example, in 2009:

• We cast several new Asian characters for Coronation Street, playing Devendra Alahan’s extended family
• A new Asian family, The Sharmas, joined the cast of Emmerdale
• New comedy Mumbai Calling was filmed entirely on location in India, with 92% of the cast (including star Sanjeev Bhaskar) coming from Asian backgrounds
• The X Factor continued to be highly diverse, with 30% ethnic minority contestants
• Dance group Diversity, comprised of young men from a variety of ethnic minority backgrounds, won Britain’s Got Talent

ITV is a member of the Cultural Diversity Network (CDN). We take part in regular CDN meetings and report our progress in increasing on-screen representation of ethnic minorities to them annually.

Disability

Television programmes that feature people with disabilities and chronic illness can raise public awareness and promote understanding. We aim to portray disability authentically and integrate it naturally into characters’ storylines.

Our diversity portrayal monitoring system indicates that 0.4% of people in ITV programmes have a disability. The actual figure portrayed is much higher, because the system only captures visible disabilities or disabilities that are talked about in the script. This has its limitations as not all disabilities are picked up. However, we are aware that, even taking these issues into account, this is low compared with the national figure of 15%. We continue to work towards improving our performance in this area, through our talent and diversity strategy and with support from disability organisations. We have appointed diversity champions and run workshops to encourage creative teams to increase on-screen portrayal of people with disabilities. We also launched a plan to improve the accuracy with which we log disabilities on-screen, by increasing awareness of what constitutes a disability.

In 2009, we cast Emmerdale’s first visually-impaired character. Actress Kitty McGeever, who lost her sight aged 33, plays the character of Lizzie Lakely. In Coronation Street, the deaf character Freda is played by deaf actress Ali Briggs.

One episode of our drama series Blue Murder featured a disabled actor in a role not specifically written as disabled. The storyline did not focus on the character’s disability. This is a positive step towards the more authentic inclusion of people with disabilities in our programmes.

Our daytime and factual programmes also raise awareness about disability and feature role models with disabilities. For example, in February 2009, This Morning ran a feature on Eleanor Simmonds, who at 13 became Britain’s youngest Paralympic gold medallist with two swimming medals in Beijing.

In the game show Eggheads, produced at ITV Studios, a deaf quiz team won £23,000 and defeated the Eggheads team, comprised of European and world quiz champions. It was the first time an entirely deaf team has featured on the show, which used two sign language interpreters to communicate with team members.

ITV is a member of the Broadcasting and Creative Industry Disability Network (BCIDN), which holds events and workshops that bring together major UK broadcasters, producers and creatives to discuss disability issues, best practice, and share success stories in recruiting disabled employees and increasing on-screen diversity. In 2009 the BCIDN hosted a series of events that set participants from across the industry the task of pledging to improve disability representation in programmes, and discussed how to achieve this goal.

Gender

Women are reasonably represented in most types of programming at ITV. For example, there are high numbers of strong female characters in ITV soaps and we also have a strong representation of female presenters. In 2009, over 52% of people on ITV1 nationwide were female, just above the UK-wide figure of 51%.

Sexuality

Programmes shown on ITV feature authentic portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) characters, and storylines related to their sexuality.

For example, Emmerdale featured a story about Aaron Dingle coming to terms with his sexuality. The storyline highlights prejudice often experienced by members of the LGBT community. Aaron Dingle is a tough, menacing character on the show which contradicts stereotypical portrayals often reflected on television.

Age

Around 10% of people on ITV are aged over 55, which is low compared with the national average of around 25%. We are working to improve on-screen representation of older people. Our soaps in particular have particularly high numbers of characters over 55.

(1) Source: 2001 census