The Church of England last night condemned television shows such as Celebrity Big Brother, Little Britain and even Strictly Come Dancing for causing humiliation to get higher ratings.

Members of the General Synod, meeting in London, voted overwhelmingly to record their “concerns” at the tendency to “exploit the humiliation of human beings for public entertainment”. The Rev Richard Moy, of the Lichfield Diocese, called on the Government to investigate how shows that revel in the abuse of others may be “fatally eroding” standards of behaviour. Regulators and media barons should not be let off the hook for the content of their output.

But Mr Moy said the Church was missing a trick by not tapping into modern-day communications such as podcasts or even top-rated shows.

He told the Synod in London: “My only complaint with Channel 4 is that they did not think to have our Archbishop of York [John Sentamu] on Celebrity Big Brother. Imagine how much use he would have been in the middle of the race row. Perhaps the money raised could have been used to help orphanages in Africa.”

In the debate on media standards, the Little Britain character Vicky Pollard was picked out because it makes fun of the way in which some teenage girls speak.

Strictly Come Dancing was mentioned because its knock-out stages focus on losers.

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