‘Dirty work’ in UK television: Ancillary work and the grey zones of creative labour

UK television ancillary workers, the cleaners, drivers, caterers and security staff who service television productions, occupy a paradoxical position: essential, yet routinely excluded from conceptions of the creative workforce and subjected to inferior working conditions, status and recognition. Drawing on an in-depth mixed-methods study, we argue that specialised ancillary workers should be recognised as part of the television production workforce and given scholarly and industry attention. We apply the sociological concept of ‘dirty work’ to creative labour, adapting it into our understanding of the ‘grey zones’ of creative work: marginalised, peripheral forms of work overlooked by academic and policy frameworks. We engage with media and cultural industries approaches to show how a narrow focus on those designated ‘creative’ workers reproduces existing class hierarchies. The article calls for a broader, more inclusive research agenda as a matter of social justice and scholarly responsibility. The findings highlight pervasive issues faced by ancillary workers, including long hours, low pay, lack of basic amenities and lack of respect, alongside their own perspectives and identity work. Excluding ancillary work from the creative labour paradigm is analytically and ethically flawed, and we propose an expanded framework that values all labour in the production process.