EXCLUSIVE: Hollyoaks and Loose Women star Sherrie Hewson says older television viewers are being treated like “coffin dodgers” and more older people need to be seen on screen
Sherrie Hewson says TV bosses need to make more shows with older people in them.
The former Loose Women star, 75, believes mature telly fans are being treated like “coffin dodgers” and broadcasters are “chasing the young and forgetting the old”.
According to a new report called The Upper Third, commissioned by Freeview broadcaster Great! TV, more than a quarter of viewers feel forgotten by today’s TV producers, despite watching more television than any other age group.
The Great! network – including Great! TV, Great! Action, Great! Mystery, and Great! Romance – is relaunching for the very audiences who feel left behind by normal TV, prioritising much-loved and classic, high-quality TV series and movies.
Speaking about the campaign, Sherrie said: “This is a brilliant campaign and long overdue. If you lived in my world, you’d know this is exactly what people want.
“Today’s TV so often chases the young and forgets the rest but for many of us, the joy of great television has always been simple – you just watch a show and you laugh, or you don’t. Funny is funny.
“Look at the adverts on television, you never see older people in adverts unless they’re in a funeral parlour or a cremation or life insurance. It’s like we’re being treated like coffin dodgers or something.”
She continued: “I did the remake of Are You Being Served? and I played Mrs Slocombe and we got something like eight million viewers for that one episode and every character in that is older. Everybody loved it.
“You don’t have to remake these shows but just make the older shows more accessible so people can see them.”
Sherrie thinks entertainment shows such as Naked Attraction are taking too greater priority over the dramas and sitcoms she grew up loving.
She added: “Somebody’s paid to have these commissioned and I don’t get it. Maybe it’s because I’m the age I am but my daughter who’s 40 thinks its awful to so it’s not just me.”
Sherrie is currently playing Martha Blake in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks, the mother of serial killer Jeremy Blake (Jeremy Sheffield).
She is also known for playing Maureen Holdsworth in Coronation Street, Lesley Meredith in Emmerdale, Joyce Temple-Savage in Benidorm and for her stint as Loose Women panellist.