Ministers pushed TV bosses to include pro-vaccine ‘propaganda' in soaps
Ministers met with TV bosses during the pandemic to persuade them to push pro-vaccine storylines in soaps such as EastEnders and Coronation Street, it has emerged.
Freedom of information (FoI) requests reveal that officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) secretly met with ITV, the BBC and Channel 4, among others, calling for 'national unity programming'.
Critics described the meetings as 'brazen state interference', while Sir David Davis, the former Brexit secretary who fought against vaccine mandates, said it amounted to ' underhanded propaganda ' by the government.
'What this demonstrates is that during Covid, the government reduced the broadcasters to mere arms of the state,' he said.
'Of course, it was important to tell the public about the efficacy and safety of vaccines, but the state should never resort to underhanded propaganda of this nature.'
Heavily redacted documents show that as early as February 2 2020 – more than a month before the first lockdown – DCMS met with Dame Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of ITV, to 'test the possibility' of pro-vaccine messaging.
A briefing note shows that the Department of Health wanted to write to broadcasters asking them to 'include vaccine storylines in their soaps', but DCMS considered a letter inappropriate given the 'importance of broadcasters' operational and editorial independence.'
However, DCMS said it would meet privately with ITV to 'explore' the issue.
It noted that ITV was planning soap storylines about climate change and so 'may be amenable to the idea of something similar in relation to vaccine messaging'.
Oliver Dowden, the former culture secretary, and John Whittingdale, the former minister for media and data, also met with Dame Carolyn, as well as Tony Hall, the BBC's former director-general, and Alex Mahon, the chief executive of Channel 4 in March and April 2020.
Among the discussions were plans to 'introduce health messages in soap stories'. Ms Mahon agreed that Channel 4 would 'reinforce Public Health England guidance' and target young people through its YouTube channel.
Pro-vaccine messaging did end up in soaps. In one episode of EastEnders in April 2021, Patrick Trueman told Suki Panesar he felt like he had 'won the lottery' after getting his second vaccination.
In the same clip, Karen Taylor was accused of being an 'anti-vaxxer' for worrying that they had developed the vaccine too quickly.
While modelling shows that the vaccine may have saved 1.4 million lives globally, there is also evidence it was harmful or even deadly for some people. More than 17,500 Britons have applied to the government's Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) believing they or loved ones were injured by the jab.
Laura Dodsworth, author of Sunday Times bestsellers A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic and Free Your Mind, said the FoI was a smoking gun which confirmed what many people had suspected.
'The government was in close contact with broadcasters to ensure the 'right' messages made it into entertainment – that's not public health, it's propaganda,' she said.
'Behavioural scientists are not shy about writing openly about their role in nudging vaccine uptake. But it is always fascinating when the quiet part is said out loud: soaps were drafted into service.
'Take EastEnders. Patrick and Suki dutifully pushed the jab, while 'Karen' (white, and literally named Karen) voiced concerns and was ridiculed. It was heavy-handed, awkward and divisive. Propaganda often works by polarisation: creating in-groups and out-groups to shut down debate. There's a word for this: manipulation.'
In January it emerged that the government had anticipated a £1.7 billion bill for injuries caused by the coronavirus vaccine. Yet it still sought to downplay concerns in soap storylines.
Most of the successful vaccine harm claims relate to the AstraZeneca jab, which was found to cause vaccine-induced thrombocytopenia and thrombosis, a dangerous type of blood clotting which can be fatal. There is also data linking mRNA jabs to heart problems particularly in young people.
Dr Colin Alexander, senior lecturer in political communications, at Nottingham Trent University said: 'What the FoI request information thus confirms is that broadcasters relinquished their primary democratic role of holding the powerful to account and instead became collusive with the official narrative.
'This at a time when scrutiny and investigation ought to have been at its highest.
'Full details of how pro-lockdown, pro-mask-wearing and pro-vaccine narratives were woven into the news broadcasts and entertainment products of the UK's key broadcasters will likely not be known unless several whistleblowers come forward with substantial caches of unredacted documents.'
Molly Kingsley, the founder of campaign group UsForThem which was set up during the pandemic to protect children, said the briefing notes showed 'an egregious undermining of press freedom'.
'This kind of brazen state interference with British media crosses multiple red lines.
'It indicates that the state-led pandemic censorship operation extended beyond 'merely' social media, and it raises serious questions about the integrity of messages broadcast to the public during the pandemic.
'It seems impossible for the Covid inquiry to reach conclusions without taking account of this very material disclosure.'
ITV said it had acted independently of the government during the pandemic.
'ITV delivered over ten hours a day of live news and discussion programmes which brought our viewers the most up to date information, developments and advice about the pandemic as well as providing a schedule that gave viewers an escape through entertainment,' a spokesman said.
'All of this was entirely editorially independent of the Government and any other body or interest group.'
The Telegraph has approached DCMS, Channel 4 and the BBC for comment.
Propaganda from the government's Nudge Unit
By Laura Dodsworth
A newly released FoI confirms what many suspected all along: during the pandemic, the UK government co-ordinated closely with broadcasters to ensure 'on-message' content – including pro-vaccine storylines in soaps. And who knows what else this FoI would confirm if the bulk of it wasn't redacted?
As brainwashing expert Edward Hunter wrote: 'Entertainment is sugar-coating for mind pills.' During Covid, our national broadcasters were ladling on the sugar. You couldn't avoid Covid on TV for many months.
Now, although soap operas are often issue-led, you might think viewers would like to tune in for a spot of escapism. They were denied the relief. Apart from the ubiquitous masks and elbow bumps, key messaging was awkwardly inserted.
Take one 2021 episode of EastEnders featuring a classic engineered storyline. Patrick and Suki promote the jab in a warm but overtly scripted conversation, evoking a kind of narrative uncanny valley. They are thrilled to be getting their jabs and Suki says, 'I'm calling it my superpower. Make me that bit more invincible.'
Enter Karen – the only white character in the scene, female and literally named 'Karen' – who voices concern. She's instantly mocked and shut down. The message? Trust the state. Don't be like Karen.
This is a textbook case of polarisation – a classic propaganda tactic that creates a virtuous in-group (vaccinated, compliant) and a foolish out-group (sceptical, selfish). Suki is a superhero by extension of her superpower. Karen is just stupid. It wasn't subtle, and audiences noticed. There were complaints that it was awkward, contrived and dismissive of justifiable objections and informed consent.
It didn't just happen in the UK. I spoke to a Hollywood screenwriter who received an invitation to a US summit titled Educating Audiences on the Covid-19 Vaccines. Organised by the Ad Council and Covid Collaborative, the email said: 'Film & TV writers have incredible persuasive power and reach to educate audiences through authentic and resonant storytelling. That's why we hope you'll join the Ad Council and Covid Collaborative in the largest communications initiative in U.S. history: a massive public education campaign to inspire more confidence in the Covid-19 vaccines.
'On June 29, hear from market research and messaging experts from the Ad Council, for an in-depth briefing on all the ways you can help – including how your scripts and storylines can integrate the key vaccine facts and framing that resonate with hesitant
audiences.'
The scriptwriter declined. He felt it was unethical and realised it would furthermore ruin the storytelling. But many didn't – and we got a stream of clunky vaccine cameos, awkward dialogue and virtue signalling in place of character development.
Why didn't the government rely upon the official government briefings and NHS channels? Quite simply, people trust celebrities and more than politicians. As one NHS document explained, the messenger is key: 'We are heavily influenced by who communicates information to us – we automatically defer to formal sources of authority, and we are affected by people-like-us and by the feelings we have for the messenger.'
When I was researching A State of Fear, a scientific advisor to the government told me – anonymously – that we'd soon see targeted TV campaigns, using familiar faces to push the vaccine, even specifying Lenny Henry would be the likely choice to target black and ethnic minority communities. Bingo! Cue Lenny Henry's Letter to Loved Ones campaign.
One government paper recommended that communications targeting ethnic minorities should not be 'affiliated with government or formal healthcare services' in order to be 'more trusted by some groups' as well as providing immunisations in community-based settings and religious sites. (Robert Jenrick talked about the importance of this as he visited the UK's first vaccination centre in a mosque.)
Meanwhile, celebrities were paid to post 'vaxxies', or vaccine selfies. Others received lucrative advertising contracts. As scientist Dr Daisy Fancourt told me during an interview for A State of Fear: 'It mustn't look like propaganda… It needs to come from influencers.'
The key word is 'look'. It mustn't look like propaganda – even if it is.
A panoply of unprecedented nudges everywhere pushed the vaccines. From soft and 'cuddly' (but weird) nudges like petting zoos, Euro football ticket raffles and clothing voucher giveaways, to hard and authoritarian nudges like the Vaccine Passport, the
government was determined to get jabs in arms.
But this isn't just about vaccines. As the FoI reveals, ITV was already 'planning soap storylines related to the environment and climate change and therefore they may be amenable to the idea of something similar in relation to vaccine messaging'.
Television has long been used as a behaviour change tool for many purposes, including politically controversial net zero objectives.
In 2022, Sky released a report written in collaboration with the UK government's Behavioural Insights Team (aka the Nudge Unit): The Power of TV: Nudging Viewers to Decarbonise their Lifestyles. The report openly encourages TV writers to weave climate messaging into dramas, children's shows (with bonus generational spillover effects) and even news. The aim? Normalise climate-conscious behaviours via scripted entertainment.
Just as they admit they have in the past for public health, gender equality and reducing violence. These are all noble aims, but there's a word for sharing information that is biased and used to promote a political cause, especially through emotionally compelling narratives: propaganda.
This collaboration between the Nudge Unit and different broadcasters explains how, during Cop26 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference), storylines in multiple soap operas converged on the environment. Each soap filmed scenes that covered different aspects of climate change, the shows referenced each other and characters popped up in different soaps. And given Eastenders's enthusiastic embrace of fashionable messaging, it's no surprise that the programme makers adapted the iconic closing credits to show London if sea levels rose by two metres.
This FoI is a useful piece of evidence, but the real scandal has been hiding in plain sight all along. Behavioural scientists have boasted about their involvement. Politicians have proudly described how they engineered 'trusted messengers' to bypass scepticism. And television continues to be openly harnessed for net zero messaging.
There's a growing trend of public policy delivered through storylines – we're being entertained into compliance. What better to wash your brain with than with a soap?
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