‘Poverty porn’: BBC’s new Hunger Games-style show blasted by filmmaker Ken Loach

‘“Britain’s Hardest Grafter,” an upcoming BBC program, targets the poor and shows the depths to which the broadcaster has sunk, social realist filmmaker and activist Ken Loach has warned.

The show has been condemned as a cross between Channel 4 “poverty porn” outing Benefits Street and the dystopian action series The Hunger Games, in which the desperate are pitted against each other by a totalitarian regime.

Loach told the Morning Star: “It’s fascist TV where poverty is seen as entertainment.” He railed against the idea of “BBC programs targeting the poorest people.” “It shows the depths to which our public sector has sunk,” he said.

Some 24,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the show to be dropped, and a newly elected Labour MP has also joined the debate.’

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