Watching suicide methods in TV dramas is harmful, so why are we still seeing them?

Written: October 30, 2025

We’ve seen widespread and legitimate concerns voiced about the naming of Ricky Hatton’s suicide method in news media. But we haven’t seen similar concerns raised about the opening scenes of a popular new TV drama that aired this month, where we saw the main character’s suicide method depicted graphically on-screen. It was a very explicit scene that I found deeply unsettling.

We need to consider how suicide methods are being shown or explicitly referenced in popular TV drama series. Portraying suicide methods graphically on-screen can be potentially triggering for individuals who are vulnerable – particularly individuals who are currently having suicidal thoughts. It can also be traumatic for people who have lost someone to suicide, especially if their loved one used the same method as depicted on-screen.

In many ways, the popular TV drama series makes extremely positive contributions to suicide prevention, highlighting in particular the risks faced by women in their middle years. It shows how a combination of factors have led the main character to the point of suicide and shows her journey to recovery as she develops connections with peers and a meaningful focus in a new venture that also provides an outlet for her to express powerful emotions that have been suppressed. We see her rediscovering her worth, her powerful voice and her unique place in the world. Its overall message is one of hope and empowerment.

I loved the series – it was ultimately uplifting and joyous – and I look forward to a new series being commissioned. But the images of the suicide method remain with me, particularly because we saw it several times again in the early episodes.   

It doesn’t have to be this way. One of the most powerful depictions of suicide I’ve seen in a TV drama in recent years was also the most under-stated. We only learn that the character has taken her own life afterwards, and then only in a series of understated scenes which invite us to reflect deeply on how easily the signs of suicide risk can be missed, for indeed most of us (as viewers) missed them in this series too.  The series (“This Is Going To Hurt”) made a powerful statement about the risks of doctors taking their own life. The young and talented doctor Shruti takes her own life in episode 6.

We learn about her death in a series of brief scenes: the main character (Adam, her doctor colleague) walks into A&E to find it eerily quiet, his colleagues in tears.  Like him, we don’t understand for a few seconds what is happening. It cuts to another scene where a police car pulls up in front of a row of houses. Then back to A&E where a senior nurse takes Adam in her arms and tearfully blurts out “I don’t know what she was thinking”. Then we see Shruti’s parents open the front door to the police and we instantly realise what has happened. And at this point we remember: the only time Shruti had addressed the viewers directly was when she walked out of the hospital at the end of her exhausting final shift. She looked directly into the camera and said “I’m sorry. I really did try.” Why hadn’t we realised what she meant, thinks the viewer, thus experiencing in a small way the questions we repeatedly ask ourselves when someone we know takes their own life. In the same way that Adam goes over his final encounter with Shruti when they spoke in the locker room at the end of her shift, we think: why didn’t we notice how depressed the doctor was becoming, and how withdrawn she was?  

TV drama can be a powerful vehicle that can help raise public awareness and understanding of suicide. It can cause us to reflect deeply and think about our own responses to someone who is struggling. However, it needs to be portrayed with extreme care to avoid the risk of harm to vulnerable individuals.

Joy Hibbins runs a Suicide Crisis Centre: https://www.suicidecrisis.co.uk and is the author of “The Suicide Prevention Guidebook” and “Suicide Prevention Techniques”.

For immediate support contact the Samaritans on 116 123. 

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