BRYONY GORDON: I'm horrified by the ITV bloodbath of Lorraine and Loose Women... and disgusted by the real reason behind it
If I were a producer on a daytime TV show, the type that women watch in their millions for its thoughtful coverage of everything from breast cancer to binge-eating disorders, there’s only one issue I’d be interested in covering right now.
It’s the story of how, looking to fund coverage of next year’s football World Cup, the head of ITV has taken a great big axe to its most popular shows for women. I’d probably want to get a few talking heads on, and have a spirited discussion about why it’s always women’s issues that fall to the bottom of the pile when push comes to shove.
How else to take the news that Lorraine and Loose Women are to be savaged, with a spokesman for the media giant saying the changes will fund ‘investment in dramas like Mr Bates vs The Post Office and in coverage of the biggest sporting events like next year’s football World Cup’.
From January, both Lorraine and Loose Women will be cut back, only going out for 30 weeks of the year, and taking breaks during the school holidays. (Good grief, that’s when I need the likes of straight-talking Janet Street-Porter and Kaye Adams more, not less).
Lorraine has also suffered the indignity of being cut from an hour to 30 minutes, which, once you’ve got the ad breaks and links out of the way, leaves just about enough time to say a brief hello before passing the baton on to Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley on This Morning.
As a long-term lover of daytime TV, I was horrified to read about the ‘bloodbath’ that’s apparently about to take place at ITV. I find it deeply depressing in a world that sometimes feels as though it’s going backwards when it comes to the visibility of women’s issues.
These shows might seem like trifling light entertainment to those who don’t watch them, but the reality is they provide a much-needed space for important subjects that would otherwise be ignored.
I’ve seen first-hand how engaged the viewers of both shows are, and how passionate the presenters and production staff are when it comes to their work.
Lorraine has suffered the indignity of being cut from an hour to 30 minutes, writes Bryony Gordon
As has Loose Women, with both shows to be cut back, only going out for 30 weeks of the year, and taking breaks during the school holidays
When I went on Loose Women after Denise Welch suggested a segment on alcoholism and sobriety, I was blown away by the chance to talk about such dark but important things slap-bang in the middle of the day – and to a huge audience that, judging by the many moving messages I received afterwards, really needed to hear it.
Similarly, I remember the first time I went on Lorraine, back in 2016. I’d just written a book about my experiences with mental illness, and was amazed when the show not only asked me to go on to talk about the subject, but proceeded to treat it with a care and compassion I hadn’t always encountered in the media.
(Don’t forget, this was still a channel that aired The Jeremy Kyle Show, which would later be pulled off air after a guest went on to kill themselves.)
Over the years, Lorraine has had me back on numerous occasions, to talk about everything from addiction to binge eating to running the marathon in my underwear.
Indeed, I’ve been on Lorraine three times now in just my bra and pants – a record, surely? – and once in my bathing suit, running into the freezing sea with 50 female swimmers, aged between 20 and 95, to present a segment about body confidence.
Every time I go on, I’m inundated with messages from women who tell me the show gives them a brief moment in their days to feel better about themselves.
And no wonder. It’s passionate about women’s health and wellbeing, with an impressive history of campaigning on behalf of its viewers. It was Lorraine who first teamed up with the incredible Dame Deborah James to talk about bowel cancer, and it’s Lorraine that continues this work with its No Butts campaign, raising awareness of symptoms.
Meanwhile, the show’s Change and Check campaign, created after one of the production staff, Helen Addis, was diagnosed with breast cancer, is the reason so many women’s public toilets now feature life-saving posters which show us how to look for signs of the deadly disease.
I’ve been on Lorraine three times now in just my bra and pants... and every time I go on, I’m inundated with messages from women
The show has run campaigns to get the lifesaving drug Enhertu for breast cancer patients, and has a choir made up of viewers who discovered their illness thanks to the information they learnt through Change and Check. Last year, they even performed at the Royal Variety Performance, impressing the King and Queen so much that they were invited to perform at Buckingham Palace last month.
Then there’s the domestic violence campaign Loose Women launched last autumn, Facing It Together, where presenters including Olivia Attwood and Brenda Edwards spoke movingly of their own experiences of abuse. The power that shows like these have to make a difference to women’s lives should not be underestimated.
How depressing, then, that the head of ITV, Kevin Lygo, wants to divert money away from them to generate ‘savings which will allow us to reinvest across the programme budget’. Budgets like the World Cup.
Now listen, I know that women watch football too (I most certainly do), but surely a media company as large as ITV should be savvy enough to see that the optics on this aren’t great.
Especially in the week it’s also been rumoured that the channel is out to get the mega-expensive Gary Lineker, who has, rather conveniently, just left the BBC.
No money for women’s television, but enough to tempt Lineker? I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of drama Lygo was looking to invest in.
News flash: rich couple actually fancy each other!
Say what you like about space-travelling super couple Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, but you can’t deny that they clearly fancy the pants off each other. The pictures of them frolicking on a yacht this week show any doubters that they are very much together for something more valuable than money: buzzing sexual chemistry!
Don't break her heart again, Ralph
Thirty years after their age-gap affair scandalised the world, Ralph Fiennes is reuniting with Francesca Annis, who is 18 years his senior. They met when Annis played Fiennes’ mother in Hamlet, and now she’s going to be playing his mum again, this time in a play called Small Hotel, at Theatre Royal Bath. Either she’s a glutton for punishment or a woman with rock-solid self-confidence. Whatever the case, I hope she breaks a leg, and not her heart.
I don’t mean to sound selfish, but this cyber attack on M&S is really getting in the way of my flourishing Marks & Sparks addiction. My favourite way to switch off at night used to be mindlessly scrolling the retailer’s app, adding the latest polka-dot dress or denim waistcoat to my basket. Now they’re saying online shopping won’t be back until July. I’m counting down the days.
What's wrong with a pub date?
The more I hear about Gen Z, the more sorry I feel for them. A new survey found one in four would prefer to exercise on a first date, rather than meet in a bar (and no, not that kind of exercise, before you get carried away). One in ten aged 18-24 said a run was their ideal date.
Are they mad? Running together is the kind of thing you do when you’re middle-aged and desperate to escape a house of teenagers. Get down the pub, and pronto.
I know how Peppa must feel
The news Mummy Pig has given birth to a new piglet reminded me of a time I’d rather forget – no, not the new-mum years spent watching Peppa Pig, but when my own mother added to her ‘litter’, when I was 12. My brother’s arrival was something of a shock, as I’d just started sex education lessons. I wonder if Peppa’s been told about the birds and the bees (and the pigs)?
