Q&A with Ed Thomas
"Again and again people in Burnley told us that they were grateful to be able to tell their stories, even when they were at the lowest."
Throughout the Orwell Festival we’ve been sharing new writing and insights from this year’s Orwell Prize finalists.
The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils is a social issues journalism prize, which The Orwell Prize has run in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation since 2014. The Prize is named in recognition of the task Joseph Rowntree gave his organization ‘to search out the underlying causes of weakness or evil’ that lay behind Britain’s social problems, the prize supports and encourages original, insightful and impactful reporting on social issues in the UK.
In this next interview, Ed Thomas, a finalist for this year’s Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, spoke to us about his entry ‘The Cost of Covid - Burnley Crisis’, which is based on a series of reports for BBC News.
How did the project get started?
We wanted to place ourselves at the heart of a community that was already struggling before the pandemic to witness the challenges for people living on the edge. We wanted people and their experiences to be central to the story telling, eyewitness journalism, to show the other side of the impact of Covid and lockdowns away from ICU’s and hospitals.
What were the biggest challenges you faced researching and delivering the story? How did your approach change as the situation developed?
Senior producer Lou Martin and myself worked with health economist Dr Luke Munford to identity the areas of England that were not only suffering before the pandemic, but were also being disproportionately hit again during Covid. There were so many but one that really stuck out was Burnley. On every measure, from mental health to job losses it faced serious challenges. Luke described the research as an alarm bell going off.
We were only a small team, but that worked in our favour. We secured access to Father Alex and Pastor Mick. Both were on the frontline of a growing crisis. As other agencies pulled back, they opened their doors. Father Alex’s church became a food bank, while Pastor Mick became a lifeline; delivering food, money advice, mental health support seven days a week. It was relentless and shocking.
One night we witnessed dozens of people being fed on a car park, from mill workers to disabled people unable to cope. NHS nurses were there volunteering treating the injuries and sores of people who couldn’t access help. Then we went on the road with Pastor Mick, watching as he cared for a terminally ill cancer patient who, unable to access treatment, had given up. Our camera operator, Picture Correspondent Phill Edwards, treated everyone with care and compassion, which helped to build trust. It was incredibly moving. We were capturing people’s lowest moments during lockdown in England.
Challenges included filming during high Covid rates and push back from senior figures in the town, who petitioned the BBC to influence our coverage. This meant we needed to respond robustly. We were filming people in real crisis, from mothers who had lost children to suicide to people suffering anxiety attacks on camera, so our focus was always on their welfare, and ensuring that they felt empowered by our coverage, not humiliated. People told us they felt listened to for the first time. We could only do this by spending so much time on the ground, building trust to tell the stories of people who felt completely powerless.
Have there been any developments since the story was first published?
The reports had an immediate impact. What people were seeing was more reminiscent of foreign reporting than home news: it was a glimpse of England that is seldom seen; the bereaved unable to afford a coffin, or even a taxi to pick up ashes. There were extended reports on the BBC's flagship News at Ten bulletins, digital videos, and documentaries. There were also two long reads online that had more than 7 million reads between them. The series also featured on Emma Barnett’s show on 5Live, Jeremy Vine on Radio 2, and Radio 4. Even Songs of Praise picked up the story, while it also resonated with younger audiences with coverage on BBC radio 1. The series was truly universal.
Elsewhere the reports were also picked up outside the BBC. In the Guardian, John Harris described the first film as "the conversation of the nation". American war photographer Lynsey Addario visited Pastor Mick for the New York Times. The Pastor also appeared on Sky News, ITV news, Channel 4 dispatches and ITV’s Tonight.
The series was raised by MPs and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The weekend after our first report a coalition of almost 500 church leaders wrote to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak highlighting the poverty exposed by the pandemic. Internal inquiries by the local Foundation Trust were launched after mental health failures were exposed in our reporting. A week after the BBC’s fourth report, the government announced twenty million pounds in ‘Levelling Up’ money for Burnley.
The wider impact of what happened next was unexpected, but wonderful. Donations from across the world overwhelmed Pastor Mick and Father Alex, with more than a million pounds being raised so far, money that Pastor Mick used to rent out a former gym and buy a nearby disused church. From the humblest of beginnings, feeding the desperate on a car park, he now provides essential services like food, mental health counselling, haircuts, mother and baby classes, homeless and housing support for hundreds in the town.
The NHS has now trialed running services from inside Church on the Street, providing crucial health care, pioneering a new way of operating for GPs and mental health care. Pastor Mick said "the BBC reports will not only will change lives, but will save them." Earlier this year our work was recognised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Prince William came to Burnley to see Pastor Mick and the work he has been doing. They had seen our coverage and read the long read, and both seemed genuinely moved by what was happening in town.
Has the investigation, and, being shortlisted for the prize, changed how this kind of reporting is seen in the newsroom? Has it changed how you view your own work?
It’s an incredible honour to be shortlisted. I hope it reminds newsrooms that eyewitness journalism, with people at the heart of storytelling has value and with commitment can deliver vital reporting that is a force for good. Too often the focus can shift from those at the centre of the story to places like Westminster. Of course it’s important to analyse and scrutinise policy but unless we witness, hear, and see the struggles of people it’s sometimes difficult for changes to happen.
Why, ultimately, does this story matter?
Again and again people in Burnley told us that they were grateful to be able to tell their stories, even when they were at the lowest. They genuinely felt abandoned during the pandemic, but in many ways our coverage gave them agency, a control over their lives they felt had previously been lost. It was and is a story away from corridors of power: it connected with underserved audiences, which is incredibly important at the BBC. It was also important to highlight the challenges ahead for the government post-pandemic, especially in places hoping to be levelled up.
Who (or what) helped you most when you were first starting your career?
News can be all consuming. It’s a relentless machine. For me the Editors who nurtured journalists, who cared about stories with people at the heart of them, editors who were brave enough to give you the time and space to deliver journalism with impact, are the ones who stand out. I’ve always felt incredibly lucky to be around them, they are the people who make the difference.
What does George Orwell mean to you?
For many George Orwell laid out a blueprint what it looks like when life goes wrong, when society fails and the state over reaches. His work hangs over not only authoritarian regimes but also many countries who stray from principles of fairness, opportunity, and equality. He has become a watchdog, when those in power are mentioned in the same breath as him, maybe it’s a warning to ordinary people that not all is well.
Ed Thomas is a Special Correspondent at BBC News. His reporting inside Wandsworth Prison and the inequality exposed by Covid won Royal Television Society awards in 2017 and 2022. His work often focuses on communities and people struggling to be heard in modern Britain and his extended reports feature on the BBC News at Ten and BBC online. Over the past 12 months Ed, with picture correspondent Phill Edwards and Senior Producer Lou Martin spent months in Burnley to witness the impact of the pandemic on the poorest, their reporting was an unflinching look at the lives of those in the most deprived areas of England.