Don't worry, this isn't going to be a sanctimonious rant about how we're all going to Hell in a bumpy, sequin encrusted Simon Cowell-controlled handcart, though it's quite tempting isn't it? Because Reality Television is a great divider of opinion; something you're expected to love unconditionally or hate with wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth outrage.
(Just as an aside, isn't it interesting how people can assume they know what TV shows you like before you've actually told them? I'm not sure quite what impression I make, but apparently I'm the sort of person who people immediately assume hates all forms of Reality Television and is an avid fan of 'Sex and the City'. When my birthday comes round, people tend to buy me cards with pairs of shoes on the front. It's lovely of them, but the truth is that I can't stand 'Sex and the City' and I can't remember the last time I bought a pair of shoes. In fact I hate shoe-shopping. The only reason I've got lots of pairs of shoes is because I'm a hoarder and I don't throw anything away, ever. Some of those shoes I've had since I was nineteen years old.
God, I'm glad I've got that off my chest...)
For me, television is like a box of Quality Street. You have a good old rummage, then you pick and choose what you like and leave what you don't. And if I'm partial to a Hazelnut in Caramel while the person next to me enjoys a Coffee Cream, then why should I care?
My own opinion, for anyone who may be interested in it, is that Reality Television is enjoyable as long as there is actually some 'Reality' in it. That, or it simply has to put a smile on my face. 'Strictly Come Dancing' does that, so I enjoy watching it. I also enjoyed watching 'Big Brother' because no matter how tacky and controlled it was, and no matter how fame-hungry and aware the contestants were, after about Week Three you'd see real, unvarnished personalities start to emerge against all the odds. I found that fascinating, though most people I spoke to didn't share my opinion. In fact, one of my bosses on finding out I was watching and enjoying 'Big Brother', told me his opinion of my intelligence had "drastically lowered" (bless him).
Which brings me on to the snobbery some people amusingly display when they discuss Reality Television, usually with disgust and a "I'd never watch that rubbish" or "it's for people with no intelligence" or "it's corrupting the kids". As much as I don't enjoy watching the 'X Factor' I wouldn't condemn anybody who does to an empty lifetime of illiterate chavviness. It's just an entertainment programme a lot of people enjoy watching on Saturday nights, that's all. Television can entertain as well as inform, just as books can, or magazines, or people. And to me, you can dip in, take your pick and enjoy both of those aspects in equal measure.
I've said I don't like watching the 'X Factor', not because I think it's the spawn of the devil, more that I just find it boring. The same format every year; the same sob stories, the same dead-eyed performances of the same songs, the same lack of genuine human emotion and raw talent. But I think that's more to do with my advancing age than anything else (that and the fact that nothing the 'X Factor' can produce will ever top the Great Will Young vs. Gareth Gates showdown of 2001's 'Pop Idol'. But I was younger, and more naive, in those days). And no matter how ambivalent I am to that, and to 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!' (a programme I have never liked), it's just my opinion, worth the same as anybody else's. No more, no less.
I can't help finding the sort of people who condemn the trashier side of television, or life for that matter, a bit humourless. Surely we all need a bit of trash in our lives; some shiny things we like but don't take too seriously? 'Strictly Come Dancing' does that for me, but there I'm probably analysing a bit too much.
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