Jeremy Kyle Dispatches documentary exposes 'prison-like conditions' and encouraged drug-taking on the show

28 May 2019, 12:35 | Updated: 28 May 2019, 12:51

By Mared Parry

@maredparry

According to a new Dispatches investigation, The Jeremy Kyle Show's guests smoked drugs with producers and were given drinks before heading on stage.

The Jeremy Kyle Show was recently taken off-air for good after ITV received floods of comments surrounding guests' wellbeing following a former guest's death.

Steve Dymond, 62, tragically took his own life after appearing on the long-running daytime show, and since his passing, many former contestants and former members of crew have come forward to share their stories.

Read more: Jeremy Kyle is 'utterly devastated' after show is axed

The hard-hitting documentary Jeremy Kyle: TV on Trial aired last night at 8pm on Channel 4 and was based around 53-year-old Kyle's notorious TV show.d

An anonymous producer spoke with reporter Morland Sanders and explained that guests who had problems with drugs were often encouraged to visit their dealer before heading on the show and it would be expensed by the show before coming on-air.

They said: "‘Researchers and APs and sometimes producers would smoke weed with guests in the hotels the day before to keep them happy.

"If guests were becoming flakey they’d appease them in any way they could"

"There was a contributor who was a drug addict and had since stopped taking drugs and cleaned their act up. But in actual fact the show wanted them to be on drugs, because there was no ‘story’ without it.

"One of the producers was asked “get that person to take drugs again” and at one point was asked “leave money lying around on a table so they will take that money and go and buy drugs with it”."

They continued: "The guests were treated like cattle. Behind the scenes they created a kind of maze. It’s so if the guests run off the stage it’s a controlled environment.

"The cameraman knows where to go. The guest won’t be able to find their way out because it all looks the same."

Another producer contributed their experience on the show, explaining: "All the new staff that were on the show got taken to a big meeting, and we were taught, about this process that they used on the show called “Talking Up” which I’d not come across before, essentially ‘cause the show is about conflict resolution, you need the people that come on the show to be in conflict when you get on… when they’re on the show,"

"So, it was about developing a rapport with somebody, and then using that rapport to wind them up, …Before I watched… before I started on the show, when I was just watching it as a viewer, you kind of assume that the people who act like that on the show are just normally like that, and they must just be like that in their normal life, and I think working on the show you sort of realise that … they’ve been produced to be that way.

"Another member of production said he often saw cans of lager being taken to contributors backstage, heading to dressing rooms, which they were told was for ‘medicinal purposes’ to keep alcoholics ‘topped up'".

Heart.co.uk have reached out to ITV for comment.