Way back in the mists of time, when public service television actually lived up to its name, BBC series such as PLAY FOR TODAY dealt with social issues in a manner calculated to raise awareness. Ken Loach's CATHY COME HOME (1966) offers a good example: following its first broadcast, the Labor government brought in new legislation to try and deal with an ever-growing level of homeless people. This kind of campaigning drama still exists - within the last week BBC Radio 4 has broadcast a trilogy of plays focusing on people who simply disappear without trace. In televisual terms, however, this kind of drama is passé; instead, we have programs like BENEFITS STREET, a fly-on-the-wall documentary looking at life in a rundown community in Birmingham. The participants have obviously been selected for their entertainment value - druggies, jailbirds and matriarchal figures are the kind of stereotypical figures we would expect to see in a place like this, and the producers do not disappoint us. What I find most regrettable about the series is that it simply reinforces prevailing stereotypes about life on the poverty line. No attempt has been made to analyze the participants' lives in any detail; they are treated like circus-acts, presented for middle-class audiences who can watch them with a kind of horrible fascination, and subsequently write complaining letters to the newspapers about how parasites are living off the Welfare State and need their benefits cut as soon as possible. BENEFITS STREET is not the first example of this kind of 'documentary', nor will it be the last.