TV shows such as Celebrity Big Brother, Little Britain and even Strictly Come Dancing humiliate people in order to get higher ratings, religious leaders believe.

The Church of England General Synod voted by 217 to 0 yesterday to express its “concerns” at the current tendency to “exploit the humiliation of human beings for public entertainment”. 

The Rev Richard Moy, curate of St Jude’s in Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, believes the Government should launch an investigation to discover the impact of some shows which revel in the abuse of others and may be “fatally eroding” standards of behaviour. 

Regulators and media barons should not be allowed to be let off the hook for the content of their output, the Synod in London heard. But the RevMoy, who opened the debate on behalf of the Lichfield Diocese,  noted that the church was missing a trick by not tapping into modern-day communications such as podcasts or even top-rated shows such as Celebrity Big Brother. 

Read the full story in the Express & Star. 

TV shows such as Celebrity Big Brother, Little Britain and even Strictly Come Dancing humiliate people in order to get higher ratings, religious leaders believe.

The Church of England General Synod voted by 217 to 0 yesterday to express its “concerns” at the current tendency to “exploit the humiliation of human beings for public entertainment”. 

The Rev Richard Moy, curate of St Jude’s in Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, believes the Government should launch an investigation to discover the impact of some shows which revel in the abuse of others and may be “fatally eroding” standards of behaviour. 

Regulators and media barons should not be allowed to be let off the hook for the content of their output, the Synod in London heard. But the RevMoy, who opened the debate on behalf of the Lichfield Diocese,  noted that the church was missing a trick by not tapping into modern-day communications such as podcasts or even top-rated shows such as Celebrity Big Brother. 

He said: “My only complaint with Channel 4 is that they did not think to have our Archbishop of York (John Sentamu) on Celebrity Big Brother. Imagine how much use he would have been in the middle of the race row. Perhaps the money raised could have been used to help orphanages in Africa.” 

In the debate on media standards, Little Britain character Vicky Pollard was picked out because it makes fun of the way in which some teenage girls speak. Strictly Come Dancing was mentioned because its knock-out stages, complete with spotlight and dramatic background music, focus on losers. 

Describing these “seconds of suspense as a waste of broadcasting time”, Dr Edmund Marshall, of the Wakefield Diocese, said: “Let’s concentrate on the strongest link rather than the weakest.” 

The Synod disagreed with his view. 

The Rev Stephen Lynas, of the Bath and Wells Diocese, said: “Big Brother is pretty awful but nobody has died yet. There is much in the media that enhances us. 

“For every Jade Goody there is a Sister Wendy. You cannot blame TV and the media in general for things that have more complex causes that make people act daft.” 

The Synod heard claims that the British Board of Film Classification is making pornography easier to access by giving hardcore material an 18 certificate. 

Films which previously would have been classified an 18 are now being rated 15 and old 15 certificate films are being passed as 12, it was said. Former BBFC president Andreas Whittam Smith defended passing two sexually explicit and violent films – Baise-Moi and Intimacy – with 18 certificates. 

He told the Synod: “However they were marred by their sexually explicit content, they had something to say. Public taste is always slowly shifting, very smoothly and slowly. In my day, and I expect still, the public was very uncomfortable by violence on the screen while at the same time not too bothered by explicit sexualness.”