More Than Half Of UK’s Film & TV Workforce Experienced Bullying And Harassment Last Year, Says Alarming Report; “Mental Health Crisis” Plateauing
More than half of the UK’s film and TV industry workforce experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the past year, according to alarming statistics from The Film & TV Charity (TFTVC) that did find the “mental health crisis” to be plateauing.The organisation’s second ever Looking Glass report, which surveyed more than 2,000 people, found 57% had been targeted by these unacceptable behaviours in 2021.
Broken down, around 40% said they had experienced bullying, 39% racial harassment or discrimination and 11% sexual harassment.Alex Pumfrey, CEO of TFTVC, described the results to Deadline as “shocking, surprising and disheartening.”“I really hoped this behaviour was changing in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein and Noel Clarke incidents so to see such problematically high figures is very troubling,” said Pumfrey.There is, however, a “real cross-industry effort to tackle the issue through multiple angles,” added the charity boss, pointing to her organization’s bullying advice work, updated principles from the BFI and BAFTA and industry body ScreenSkills’ training.“We’re doing a better job at co-ordinating this work and the impact should be greater than the sum of our parts,” said Pumfrey, whose organization’s Let’s Reset campaign is about to pivot towards focusing on bullying.Today’s Looking Glass 2021 report found the proportion of people reporting poor mental health to have plateaued over the past two years at 13%, with 39% reporting “fair” mental health, 25% “good” and 23% “very good.”In 2019, these results were described as indicative of a “mental health crisis” by the UK’s Work Foundation but Pumfrey welcomed a “note of optimism” in that they haven’t worsened, coming after a difficult two-year period for an
