Get real, this is not reality!

What a bunch of winging, miserable whiners we are in this country. The current series of Celebrity Big Brother has so far attracted over 340 complaints. You might be forgiven for thinking that the complaints were about the absence of any actual celebrities, although former heavy weight boxing champ Evander Holyfield was in there at the beginning. Among the other celebs are a reality TV star, an 80 year old ,man who was once a regular on charades show Give us a clue, a once funny comedian, recently cleared of sex offences, an ex pop star, an ex sex addict, another former reality show runner up, another pop star who is openly skint and a journalist. The line-up though is not the reason for the complaints, it is the task the contestants were given. On Monday nights channel 5 show the house mates were told to produce a certificate 18 show to win prizes. The show consisted of dressing up and simulating sex, and writhing around a pole. TV watchdog Ofcom are said to be considering whether to take action or not.  Surely it would have been easier for the 340 complainants to take action. Is it not eternally easier to reach 6 inches for the remote control and turn the garbage off? By the time they had got their smart phones out and googled the complaints number they could have switched the drivel off and         watched something else.

 

The show has been pulling regular viewing audiences of over 2million. Obviously, these antics are designed to attract the voyeurs to tune in and the old adage that any publicity is good publicity will have the show’s producers rubbing their hands with glee.

Holyfield, who once had his ear bit off by former convict Mike Tyson, caused a flurry of complaints by making homophobic comments.

It is what it is; escapist TV, not designed to be intellectual, thoughtful, thought invoking or politically correct, it is designed to be controversial and outrageous and the people who are foolish enough to tune in should expect such. If people really don’t want to see this kind of behaviour on our screens, the answer is to not watch it. If it got no viewers they wouldn’t make another series. Sadly, people do want to see household names from four decades ago and no-marks enjoying their 15 minutes of fame, swearing, smoking, drinking and making a fool of themselves. For me, putting Tyson in the house with Holyfield or someone smacking Lee Ryan in the goolies with an elephant or something bigger might make it worth watching.

While viewers hurriedly dial the Ofcom number to complain that some unknown people on a TV show, aired after the watershed on the least watched channel on terrestrial TV other household names are appearing in court facing a procession of sex charges.

 Rolf Harris, Freddy Starr, Dave Lee Travis and of course, Coronation Street favourite Bill Roach, are all facing juries. With so many of famous people in the news accused of such terrible behaviour, why on earth are we surprised when some are locked up 24 hours a day and plied with alcohol, that they also misbehave?

Last year’s show received over 900 complaints. The second most complained about show on TV was ITV’s flagship X factor with most of the complaints coming after a raunchy performance by Lady Gaga, where she danced provocatively in an outfit made of sea shells. Considerably dwarfed by these figures was third place in 2013, with ITV’s News at ten coverage of drummer Lee Rigby’s horrific murder scene receiving just short of 300 complaints. Even daytime TV regular Holly Willoughby sparked 139 complaints for wearing a dress that showed too much cleavage.

The problem is of course, that once someone becomes vaguely famous we forget that they are real people. The media; TV and the press build up their reputations and have us believe that they are special, gifted phenomenon’s, only to set them up for an almighty fall. That’s the game. We are such a nation of do-gooding whingers that we fall for it every time.  They are not special, some of them may have special talents, some of them may be extremely fortunate but all of them are normal people (to begin with at least) hiding behind a huge mask of celebrity. We the viewing public are lured in and completely forget reality and buy into the absolute nonsense that we see on TV and in glossy magazines. We buy in so much that we believe that we can have that chiselled jawline or that beautiful wrinkle free forehead and even less wrinkled torso. We try to emulate the look of these people copying their dress wear and sadly, too often their ludicrous behaviour.