Anorexia films and documentaries must avoid being voyeuristic

Karen Robinson/BBC

Despite the existence of media guidelines on how to dramatise or report on anorexia, it has often been mishandled in the past. But surely, in today’s climate of openness and responsibility on mental health, this has changed.

A trawl through a recent crop of dramas and documentaries on the subject shows progress is slow, yet there is a glimmer of hope.

More than 725,000 people in the UK are thought to be affected by an eating disorder. Although anorexia makes up just 10 per cent of those – much less than bulimia