Jeremy Kyle has defended both his chat show and his presenting style during the inquest into the death of a man who appeared on the programme.
It came as the court was also shown clips from the unaired show for the first time.
Steve Dymond, 63, was found dead at his home in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in May 2019, seven days after taking part in the show.
Steve Dymond died after filming an episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show. Pic: Family handout/PA
A coroner found he had died of a combination of a morphine overdose and left ventricular hypertrophy in his heart.
Mr Dymond had taken a lie detector test for the ITV programme after being accused of cheating on his ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan. Following his death, the episode was not aired, and the series was later cancelled.
Kyle arrived on day three of the inquest at Winchester Coroner’s Court accompanied by his solicitor, agent and several others, wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie. He then sat attentively until he was called to give evidence.
The 59-year-old presenter stood by the structure of the show, saying the stories featured were “a journey” containing both “conflict” and “resolution,” and defended his style of presenting saying “it was direct, but it was empathetic, it was honest”.
The court was shown clips from the unaired episode, with one showing Kyle saying to Mr Dymond: “The truth of the matter is you, mate, you did make up a cacophony of lies, you can sit there looking upset, people could look at this and think it’s dodgy.”
After revealing the result of the lie detector test, Kyle said: “The test says you are lying, pal, you failed every single question.”
The clip showed Ms Callaghan bursting into tears with boos being heard from the audience and Mr Dymond looking shocked as he said: “I wasn’t, I have never been unfaithful.”
Kyle replied in the footage: “The studio thought you were telling the truth, I wouldn’t trust you with a chocolate button mate.”
Kyle insists guests knew what they were getting into
From a man whose whole style was cutting, quick and at times contemptuous, it was perhaps to be expected that in court we’d hear no acceptance of responsibility from Jeremy Kyle.
Choosing his words carefully, he explained his name might have been on the show but insisted he felt satisfied about moving from guest to guest knowing others would be there to give support.
How he viewed his onscreen style from back then clearly enabled a level of disassociation. “Jeremy Kyle” was a character, a part. Guests had seen his style and knew what they were getting into.
But in clips of the show which never aired, Steve Dymond looks visibly out of his depth.
Kyle berating “your conscious will serve you in time,” are words that must surely haunt the presenter now.
Once one of the most recognisable faces of daytime TV, one of ITV’s biggest TV stars is now persona non grata on mainstream television.
Previous employers are seemingly unwilling now to be associated with his hectoring style.
Kyle insisted in court today his guests knew what they were getting into.
Kyle: ‘Grow a pair of balls and tell the truth’
Another clip featured Kyle telling Mr Dymond: “Be a man, grow a pair of balls and tell her the goddam truth.”
While another featured the presenter asking, “has anyone got a shovel?” as Mr Dymond attempted to explain why he had been messaging another woman.
Kyle denied encouraging the audience to turn against Mr Dymond, telling the inquest: “Not at all – I asked them to give them a round of applause.” He said the clips showed he had “de-escalated” and “calmed” the situation rather than inflaming it.
When asked by his barrister Nick Sheldon KC if he had “egged on the audience to boo” Mr Dymond, “pounced on him”, “heckled him”, “got in his face” or called him a “traitor” or a “failure”, Kyle said: “No, not at all”.
He went on to tell the court he believed the show took “the right approach”, and he “always believed the stories were a journey.”
He said you could “absolutely” see a journey in Mr Dymond’s case, including where he and his partner “face the truth”. He said: “It is conflict, it is resolution.”
He also made clear he was “not involved in the selection of guests” on his TV show, and was “employed absolutely as the presenter,” and nothing more.
Jeremy Kyle. Pic: Channel 4/ITV/Shutterstock
Kyle later added: “The production, the producing, the after-care, the lie detector test were not my responsibility, I was the presenter,” going on to explain that while he had created a persona for the show, he had not been trained on how to handle emotional guests.
When asked by Rachel Spearing, counsel to the inquest, whether he believed Mr Dymond was humiliated on the show, Kyle answered: “I do not”.
Maya Sikand KC, the lawyer representing Steve Dymond’s family, put it to Kyle that some of the things he said to Mr Dymond during the show were “belittling,” to which he answered “I wouldn’t agree”. He said that while Mr Dymond did get upset during filming, “he wasn’t upset from the beginning, that’s the journey and that’s the way The Jeremy Kyle Show was.”
The Jeremy Kyle Show first aired in 2005 and ran for 17 series before it was cancelled on 10 May 2019, the day after Mr Dymond’s death.
It was ITV’s most popular daytime programme.
ITV stood by Kyle at the time, with the broadcaster’s director of television Kevin Lygo confirming it was piloting a new show with him later that year, although not in the same 9.30am timeslot.
Steve Dymond and Jane Callaghan on The Jeremy Kyle Show. Pic: PA
The process of the lie detector test
Ahead of Kyle’s evidence on Thursday morning, the inquest was told that after filming had finished, Mr Dymond had told a researcher: “I wish I was dead.”
Mr Dymond had rung ITV 40 to 50 times in “desperate” attempts to become a guest on the show, the inquest was previously told.
Video clips from the unaired show were played to the court, showing Mr Dymond being advised about the processes of the lie detector test.
In the video, Mr Dymond asked the polygraph examiner, who was contracted by ITV to carry out the procedure, whether the test is “99.9% accurate”, to which the examiner replied: “They are 95% accurate” with a “narrow risk of error”.
The examiner also advised Mr Dymond that “if you fail one question, you fail the lot”.
The clips also show Mr Dymond watching a video informing him about the test which advises the participant to be “truthful, open and honest”.
Jeremy Kyle. Pic: Rex
Lie detector results added ‘element of drama’
Speaking in the witness box across the second and third day of the inquest, Chris Wissun, director of content compliance at ITV at the time Mr Dymond appeared on the ITV show, explained that the lie detector test was “a very well-established editorial feature of the programme”.
He said Kyle would not have been informed of the lie detector result ahead of time but would discover the outcome in real time during the filming of the show.
Mr Wissun said: “He would open the envelope and reveal the results and tell the guests what the results were. There was an element of drama in that moment.”
The hearing heard that the show’s aftercare team had offered Mr Dymond eight to 10 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy for self-esteem and confidence building after the show to help him address his “problem with lying”. Counselling did not go ahead due to his death.
Qualified mental health nurse Steph MacDonald, who was part of the show’s aftercare team, also gave evidence.
Ms Callaghan and Mr Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, entered the witness box on the first day of the inquest.
Mr Dymond had been diagnosed with a depressive disorder in 1995 and taken overdoses on four previous occasions – in January 1995, twice in December 2002, and April 2005 – the hearing was told on Wednesday.
The court heard he also made another apparent suicide attempt in 2002.
He was sectioned in September 2005, and a mental health assessment then found he was at “risk of suicide”.
Mr Dymond’s death added to growing scrutiny of the duty of care that reality TV shows have to participants, coming after the death of two former Love Island contestants, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
The hearing continues.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
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