Fraud on TV: the Reith principles and watching British Public Service Broadcasting
Fraud on TV: the Reith principles and watching British Public Service Broadcasting
This paper considers depictions of fraud in British true crime television programmes and focuses on 3 BBC programmes from the period 2019-2023: For Love or Money; Scam Interceptors; and Fraud Squad. We question if there is a pedagogical structure to the narratives of the programmes. Our analysis is attentive to the lasting influence of British Public Service Broadcasting traditions and the influence of the BBC’s Reith principles. The data emerging from our analysis reveals the tensions that emerge from the programmes’ stylistic attempts to remain attentive to the earliest aims of the BBC and Public Service Broadcasting. The paper argues that the 3 programmes present issues concerning fraud through the BBC’s overarching mission to inform, educate and entertain.
Spiller, Keith
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Bull, Sofia
67e74291-8c1f-409e-8c84-0416544992b7
Hanoch, Yaniv M
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Flint, Olivia Mary
52d6e232-4f09-48b1-9447-68f77a5866e8
Spiller, Keith
d0ea9172-6ef6-4f80-9f34-2285b41ab237
Bull, Sofia
67e74291-8c1f-409e-8c84-0416544992b7
Hanoch, Yaniv M
3cf08e80-8bda-4d3b-af1c-46c858aa9f39
Flint, Olivia Mary
52d6e232-4f09-48b1-9447-68f77a5866e8
Spiller, Keith, Bull, Sofia, Hanoch, Yaniv M and Flint, Olivia Mary
(2025)
Fraud on TV: the Reith principles and watching British Public Service Broadcasting.
Crime, Media, Culture.
(In Press)
Abstract
This paper considers depictions of fraud in British true crime television programmes and focuses on 3 BBC programmes from the period 2019-2023: For Love or Money; Scam Interceptors; and Fraud Squad. We question if there is a pedagogical structure to the narratives of the programmes. Our analysis is attentive to the lasting influence of British Public Service Broadcasting traditions and the influence of the BBC’s Reith principles. The data emerging from our analysis reveals the tensions that emerge from the programmes’ stylistic attempts to remain attentive to the earliest aims of the BBC and Public Service Broadcasting. The paper argues that the 3 programmes present issues concerning fraud through the BBC’s overarching mission to inform, educate and entertain.
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Accepted/In Press date: 18 September 2025
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 506336
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/506336
ISSN: 1741-6590
PURE UUID: ece999ec-0a54-4036-9c7a-9016e60a07de
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Date deposited: 04 Nov 2025 18:04
Last modified: 12 Nov 2025 02:55
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Contributors
Author:
Keith Spiller
Author:
Yaniv M Hanoch
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