Symposium report: What’s Class Got to Do with It? Rethinking TV from the Inside Out

This report documents the proceedings of What’s Class Got to Do With It? Rethinking TV from the Inside Out, a symposium held at the University of Leeds on 19 September 2025. Convened as part of the AHRC-funded project What’s On? Rethinking Class in the Television Industry (2023–26), which examines social class in public service broadcasting through partnerships with the BBC, Channel 4 and Candour Productions, the event brought together academics, industry professionals and policy stakeholders to examine class as a structuring force in TV production, representation and reception. Five key themes emerged from presentations and discussions. First, structural inequalities embedded in freelance culture systematically exclude working-class voices while exploiting their labour. Second, comedy-drama serves as both a site of working-class cultural resistance and industrial marginalization. Third, class intersects with race, gender and disability to compound disadvantage, particularly at mid-career transition points. Fourth, television’s aesthetic vocabulary reduces complex class experiences to simplistic visual tropes. Finally, bridging academic research with industry practice revealed both opportunities and limitations for meaningful intervention in public service broadcasting. The symposium concluded that addressing class inequality requires systemic change across PSB labour practices, commissioning cultures and institutional hierarchies. While obstacles remain formidable, such transformation is essential for public service broadcasters to fulfil their democratic mission and public value obligations.