The mental health crisis in the UK’s film and television study has deepened.
That’s the headline finding of the Film and TV Charity‘s latest Looking Glass Survey, one of the industry’s most comprehensive studies on working conditions for British freelancers.
Some 35% of 4,300 respondents described their mental health as “poor” or “very poor,” representing a marked increase from 24% during the last study in 2022.
Suicidal thoughts were a feature among those questioned. Some 30% of respondents (or nearly 1,300 people) said they had considered taking their own life, an rise from 29% in the previous survey.
The Film and TV Charity’s results are all the more alarming when you consider that its survey sample has more than doubled from 2,000 respondents in 2022.
Equally, the results are not surprising. Leaders in the freelance community have been sounding the alarm on mental health issues for years, with a slowdown in production only exacerbating matters.
The industry has also confronted the tragedy of John Balson, the TV producer who died by suicide earlier this year after working on Channel 4’s true-crime series In the Footsteps of Killers.
The Film and TV Charity has only released partial findings from the Looking Glass Survey and said it expects to publish a full report next year.
Other results published on Wednesday showed that only 12% of those surveyed felt that the industry is a mentally healthy place to work. Some 63% said their job harmed their mental health.
Nearly an equal number of workers (64%) admitted that they have considered leaving the industry, which was up from 60% in 2022.
Marcus Ryder, CEO of the Film and TV Charity, said: “Across previous iterations of the Looking Glass Survey, we have consistently identified how prevalent poor mental health is right across the industry.
“The early headlines from our 2024 survey are remarkably consistent – somewhat positive given the various crises that have hit the sector in recent years, but far more a cause of great concern that things are not improving quickly enough.”
The Film and TV charity is looking to develop pan-industry standards for mental health and has convened key players, including Apple TV+, the BBC and Disney, to work on the project.
Engagement with the Film and TV Charity’s Whole Picture Toolkit, an information pack that helps producers design mentally healthy TV and film productions, has risen. More than 100 companies are using the toolkit, while a further 200 individual productions have adopted the standards.
