The broadcaster asked producers of the 2010 reality show Tower Block of Commons, in which Dorris was one of the MPs who went to live in deprived communities, to investigate the claims she made to the culture select committee in May. The outcome of the investigation, undertaken by Love Productions and overseen by external lawyers, was reviewed by Channel 4, which also carried out its own “internal investigations and review of documents”. “The investigation involved contributors who were ordinary members of the public and with whom the Secretary of State had significant interaction,” Channel 4 said in a statement on Friday. “It involved talking to many of those involved in the creation of the series, including the cast and crew, and retrieving and examining relevant documentation and footage, including 85 hours of raw footage shot for the series. Neither Love Productions’ investigation nor Channel 4’s internal investigations revealed any evidence to support the claims made about the programme.’ At a meeting of the cross-party digital, culture, media and sport select committee on 19 May, Dorries made various claims, including that the reality show used paid actors or acting students and that some of the show’s participants did not live in the homes in which the show he presented them as alive. Nadine Dorries says the Channel 4 reality show used paid actors On Friday, Julian Knight, the chairman of the DCMS select committee, said he had asked Dorris to respond to the inquiry’s findings “as a matter of urgency”. “The committee has written to the secretary of state on this matter and has urgently invited her comments. Now that Channel 4 and Love Productions have completed their investigation, we look forward to receiving the Secretary of State’s response, which we will then publish.” In the reality show, Doris was sent to live on an estate in South Acton, west London, sparking a minor scandal when the MP was revealed to have smuggled a £50 note which she claimed was meant to buy presents for his children her hosts. He told parliament he believed the hosts were planted by the show’s producers. “I later found out they were actually actors,” he told MPs. “The parents of the boys in that program actually came here to have lunch with me and contacted me to tell me that they were actually going to acting school and they weren’t actually living in an apartment and they weren’t staying real. And still, if you remember, there’s a pharmacist or someone I went to see who was preparing food – she was also a paid actress.” Channel 4 said it takes any allegations of misrepresentation “extremely seriously and always rigorously investigates any such allegations”. It emerged on Tuesday that the DCMS had tried to intervene to change the wording of Channel 4’s annual report to fit in with the broadcaster’s privatization plans.
