The low point for Stef Loughrey, an established television edit and casting producer, came when she found herself sobbing in HMV’s Blu-ray section. A young, well-meaning colleague had pointed out she was the same age as their dad. It inadvertently brought home the sudden headwinds that had affected her career.
Despite 17 years in the industry with steady demand for her skills, the 38-year-old said “things just totally disappeared” in the summer of 2023. She desperately tried to find employment, including asking to do TV jobs for a lower wage. With her mortgage going up and the financial pressures increasing, she turned to the high street music retailer.
“It got to the point where I just needed to do something,” she said. “It’s not the case I thought I was too good for that – meeting people is something I really like. But I’m at a different stage of life now and have 17 years of experience. It’s a minimum-wage job, so I also burned through savings.”
Having concluded that television work would remain hard to come by for some time, Loughrey is preparing to become a witness care officer, which suits her skills. She says that as well as the financial cost, there has been a heavy mental cost and a hit to her sense of identity. “I love TV,” she said. “Working out who I am without it is ongoing.”
Loughrey is far from alone. The Guardian has been contacted by dozens of people with decades of experience in television, revealing how they have gone from a long, stable career to having to find work as shelf-stackers, car park attendants and other entry-level positions.
They all talk of a serious crisis in the industry, traditionally populated by freelancers drafted in by programme-makers as they are needed. A number of factors is behind the collapse, including over-commissioning after the Covid crisis, the fragmentation of audiences to digital platforms and a focus from broadcasters on expensive dramas. Hardest hit has been a “mid-tier” brand of unscripted television, which includes reality, travel and quizshows that were the traditional mainstays of TV listings.
It wasn’t long ago that Kim Lask, 42, who has a 20-year career in factual entertainment television, was so in demand that she was being asked to work during her maternity leave. Work dried up for her last November. She has been working in a pub and at Lidl, doing promotional work. “I’m so used to working with people and TV can be such a sociable industry that it’s really weird when it just stops cold,” she said. “What has happened is surreal. I’ve just felt very lost, I suppose, and insecure about the future.
“I’ve still got half my career to go. Do I carry on pursuing it, or do I throw in the towel and make a career change? If I do that, then we have to make huge life changes. I do really enjoy the pub because it’s such a great community. But to go from an editing suite in Fitzrovia to minimum-wage work is crazy.”
Work dried up for Ben Seale, a 35-year-old director and producer, in the summer of 2023. “That was soul-destroying, having spent 10 years getting to where I was,” he said. “It was probably the darkest months of my life.” The stress, combined with memories of a difficult filming experience, plunged him into depression.
“I ended up working a till at Marks & Spencer for the Christmas shift,” he said. “That’s not to belittle the job – there are loads of amazing people that work those jobs. But I’d worked towards something for 10 years. I don’t think I’ll ever forget a customer telling me that I was terrible at my job and clearly didn’t know what I was doing. A real boot while I was down.”
Since then, Seale has made a successful transition to overseeing a company’s YouTube channel, including editing its video content. He is keen to let other freelancers know that they have skills that are valuable. He is also clear-sighted about the sacrifices.
“I’ve taken a big pay cut from what I was on in TV,” he said. “It was a job that I loved to do, but I have hope for the future. My story wasn’t as bad as others. I didn’t lose a house, I didn’t lose relationships, I didn’t have children to look after. There are colleagues going through that.”
