About this episode

Vanessa Feltz and Andrew Gold engage in a heated discussion about the state of television, censorship, and controversial topics including transgender identity.

Vanessa Feltz has spent more than thirty years at the heart of British television. I built Heretics outside it. We began by agreeing that television had become sanitised. Within minutes, she was asking whether I was ashamed of myself. What follows is a collision between two very different ideas of public conversation: one prioritises care and responsibility; the other prioritises bluntness and freedom. You decide which one the future belongs to. Sub to her new show here: https://www.youtube.com/@VanessaFeltzYouTube Following the sudden end of her Channel 5 programme, Vanessa reveals how Paramount pulled the plug, why terrestrial television is losing its audience and what decades in British broadcasting taught her about censorship, controversy and the shrinking space for unscripted opinions. But the agreement doesn’t last. A throwaway remark about Loose Women becomes an accusation of misogyny and ageism. Vanessa explains why she deplores my decision to interview Katie Hopkins, questions whether controversial figures deserve a platform and reveals whether she would invite Woody Allen into her home. Then, after Vanessa asks what I have said that made me unacceptable to mainstream…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Gold

Guest: Vanessa Feltz

Topics covered

• television
• censorship
• public conversation
• misogyny
• ageism
• transgender identity
• freedom of speech

Keywords

• British television
• censorship
• controversy
• public conversation
• transgender
• freedom
• misogyny
• ageism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Channel 5, Paramount

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