A former Jeremy Kyle Show guest has defended the programme after it was cancelled by ITV following the death of a participant, saying the team behind the show “couldn’t have been more pleasant”.

Philip Clements, an ex-priest, was invited on to the confrontational talk show last summer alongside his 25-year-old husband Florin to discuss their marriage, which had hit the headlines.

The daytime show was suspended indefinitely on Monday following the death of 63-year-old Steve Dymond, who died a week after the episode featuring him was filmed.

The couple appeared on the programme last summer (Philip Clements)
The couple appeared on the programme last summer (Philip Clements/PA)

Mr Clements, who said he and his husband had a “rather nice time” while in Manchester for the show, called the experience positive and said he remained in touch with members of the team.

The 80-year-old said: “We had a care team, we had a particularly nice woman who doesn’t work for the show now but she introduced us to others we would be working with and they couldn’t have been more helpful or more pleasant.

“I think the situation was a bit different from most, there was no confrontation between Florin and myself, it was just the situation they were interested in.

“If we were in an aggressive situation it could have been different but then I wouldn’t have appeared.

“This is my misgiving about such programmes, it is displaying your dirty washing in public, it seems that these problems that arise, tragic though they are, are not really for public consumption.

“But they are entertaining, I suppose.”

Jeremy Kyle (Mike Egerton/PA)
Host of the show Jeremy Kyle (Mike Egerton/PA)

Jeremy Kyle said he was “utterly devastated by the recent events” following the cancellation of the show.

Mr Clements described Kyle as fine during filming and said he joked with him but acknowledged that the host could be “provocative”.

“I feel so sorry for this man but I just don’t know if his death was a direct result of the programme,” he said.

“If it was then of course it’s very serious.

“I think Jeremy could, I believe, be very provocative – he wasn’t with us – but he could be very provocative and maybe it was overdone.

“He’s stricken, I should think, because in my opinion he did his job pretty well but then I wasn’t at the receiving end of any of his aggressive attacks.”

Mr Clements and his partner, who lives in Alicante, Spain, briefly split, but he said things were “pretty good” at the moment, adding: “We have the occasional spat but doesn’t every relationship?”