Jeremy Kyle researchers 'smoked cannabis with guests'

Researchers working on The Jeremy Kyle Show have been accused of smoking cannabis with guests and giving them alcohol for 'medicinal purposes' in a bombshell documentary.

The production team also allegedly fuelled conflict between participants using a process called 'Talking Up' which was taught to all new members of staff when they joined.

And two more former guests have come forward to claim their treatment on the programme on and off-screen left them wanting to take their own lives, with the show's 'most hated' participant Dwayne Davison claiming he was locked in a room away from his partner for 10 hours before they were put on stage.

The claims are made on a Channel 4 Dispatches programme called Jeremy Kyle: TV on Trial that airs tonight. 

ITV denied all allegations of drug taking and said alcohol was banned in the studio and only ever given out in rare exceptions to people who are going to rehab and are experiencing withdrawal symptoms. 

The broadcaster also stated it had never suggested to guests that the lie detector test is '100 per cent accurate'. 

A new Channel 4 Dispatches programme has levelled a range of allegations against staff on the recently-axed Jeremy Kyle Show, pictured, including that producers 'encouraged drug users to visit their dealers pre-show and smoked cannabis with them in their hotels'

A new Channel 4 Dispatches programme has levelled a range of allegations against staff on the recently-axed Jeremy Kyle Show, pictured, including that producers 'encouraged drug users to visit their dealers pre-show and smoked cannabis with them in their hotels'

Jeremy Kyle on the show

Jeremy Kyle arrives back at his £3million home in Windsor earlier this month

Dispatches also spoke to producers who claimed guests were given alcohol for medicinal purposes and staff were taught how to 'Talk up' participants by establishing a rapport with them and then using the connection to 'wind them up' before they went on stage. Pictured is Mr Kyle on the show, left, and at his £3million Windsor home, right 

Guest Dwayne Davison, 24, pictured with partner Barbara Wane, 41, told the programme he was locked in a room for 10 hours when he went on the show

Guest Dwayne Davison, 24, pictured with partner Barbara Wane, 41, told the programme he was locked in a room for 10 hours when he went on the show

The Dispatches episode comes after the death of Steven Dymond, 63, earlier this month just days after he appeared on the show and failed a lie detector test following claims of infidelity against his fiancee. 

It also featured experts giving a damning verdict on the test - which has been linked to the suspected suicide of Mr Dymond - with one professor claiming they are only 70 per cent accurate even when operated by an experienced hand. 

ITV then axed the show, saying it was the 'right time for it to end' but said it would not rule out working with Mr Kyle in the future. 

MPs have since launched a probe into reality television in the UK following the deaths of Mr Dymond and former Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon, 32, and Mike Thalassitis, 26, in the past year. 

In the programme, Morland Sanders speaks to anonymous producers who worked on the show at different times throughout its 14-year run.

One who worked on the show in its first five years on ITV told him guests with drug problems were sometimes 'encouraged to take a detour to visit their dealer en route to the studios' – in taxis paid for by the production.

Another anonymous former producer who worked on the show recently said: 'Researchers and APs and sometimes producers would smoke weed with guests in the hotels the day before to keep them happy. 

'If guests were becoming flakey they'd appease them in any way they could.

'There was a contributor who was a drug addict and had since stopped taking drugs and cleaned their act up. 

The show was axed following the death of Steve Dymond, 63, left, who was found dead days after appearing on a recording where he failed a lie detector test over allegations of infidelity against partner Jane Callaghan, right. The Channel 4 programme

The show was axed following the death of Steve Dymond, 63, left, who was found dead days after appearing on a recording where he failed a lie detector test over allegations of infidelity against partner Jane Callaghan, right. The Channel 4 programme 

'But in actual fact the show wanted them to be on drugs, because there was no 'story' without it. 

'One of the producers was asked "get that person to take drugs again" and at one point was asked "leave money lying around on a table so they will take that money and go and buy drugs with it".'

Another producer who was hired to make a behind-the-scenes documentary in 2012 said he saw alcohol being given to guests backstage.

He told the programme: 'I would see cans of, lager mainly, going backwards and forwards, either being passed between researchers and heading to the dressing rooms or coming through on trays and I asked who it was going to and they said it was going to the contributors who were appearing on the show. 

'And I asked why… because I'd never seen alcohol being distributed in this manner on a TV production. 

Timeline of The Jeremy Kyle Show's downfall 

May 2: Steven Dymond fails a lie detector test when appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show

May 9: Mr Dymond's body is found at his flat in Portsmouth, and paramedics later say he has been dead for days

May 13: ITV pulls The Jeremy Kyle Show from its schedule and says it has been suspended indefinitely

May 14: Pressure mounts on ITV from MPs to cancel the show

May 15: ITV's chief executive says the show has been axed for good

'And I was told that the alcohol was for medicinal purposes, that some of the contributors were alcoholics and that the show was allowed to give alcoholics medicinal alcohol in order to keep them topped up.'

The programme also claims staff were taught how to establish a rapport with guests and 'wind them up' from the beginning of the show in 2005.

A producer told the show: 'All the new staff that were on the show got taken to a big meeting, and we were taught, about this process that they used on the show called 'Talking Up' which I'd not come across before, essentially because the show is about conflict resolution, you need the people that come on the show to be in conflict when you get on… when they're on the show.

'So, it was about developing a rapport with somebody, and then using that rapport to wind them up.

'Before I watched… before I started on the show, when I was just watching it as a viewer, you kind of assume that the people who act like that on the show are just normally like that, and they must just be like that in their normal life, and I think working on the show you sort of realise that … they've been produced to be that way.' 

Another producers told Dispatches that the guests were confused by the set: 

The source said: 'The guests were treated like cattle. Behind the scenes they created a kind of maze. …It's so if the guests run off the stage it's a controlled environment. The cameraman knows where to go. 

'The guest won't be able to find their way out because it all looks the same.' 

Mr Sanders also spoke to two former guests who said they tried to take their own lives after filming episodes. 

Stacey Talley, who appeared on the show last May, said she and her partner, Les, wanted to go on to take a lie detector test after allegations of infidelity. 

Mr Davison, pictured on the show, told Dispatches the producers were 'trying to get him in a position where he was very tense'

Mr Davison, pictured on the show, told Dispatches the producers were 'trying to get him in a position where he was very tense'

She said the producers told her they would receive 'couples counselling' after the show but that when they arrived at the studio they wanted to back out and were told they couldn't.

Ms Talley added: 'I even said that like obviously I've had problems before with my depression and I've tried to take my life before, they already knew that. So they knew I was vulnerable before I even went there. 

'I was like "I can't do this, my anxiety's so bad. Like just tell Les that I don't want to do it, I'm sorry, I can't do it."

'And they was like… well basically as soon as you sign that contract, that is it, the control is out of your hands then. You're screwed, you're going on that show.'

The pair also allege they were sent home without any aftercare despite Ms Talley indicating she was possibly suicidal – and she went on to take an overdose in the taxi home. 

Jeremy Kyle Show is a 'theatre of cruelty' 

The Jeremy Kyle Show has been branded a 'theatre of cruelty' following the apparent suicide of a man who appeared on the programme.

Experts have also urged ITV to drop the programme following the death and compared it to Romans setting lions on Christian martyrs.

ITV pulled the confrontational talk show indefinitely following the death of a guest, named as Steve Dymond, a week after the programme was filmed.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the show should be dropped and Jeremy Kyle's 'help' stretches the meaning of the word to the limit.

He said powerful emotions of shame and guilt can lead to a breakdown and these psychological forces are amplified by the show's large audience.

There have been calls for a review into the impact of

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