Last night I was subjected to a TV show called The Restaurant, with Raymond Blanc. It made me think about all the junk that is on TV these days that goes under the umbrella of ‘Reality TV’. The main defining factor of these shows seems to be that they are based on a completely unreal premise. And that is just where the nonsense starts. If this kind of idea was more widespread we would have ‘honest thieves’, ‘healthy poisons’ and ‘empathic daleks’.
The other strand of popular TV that seems to be linked to the Reality TV genre is that of food, be it cookery shows in strange places, or merely people falling flat on their griddles trying to run restaurants. The popularity of these shows seem to stem from a great need by the great British public to see people being humiliated, failing and making complete tits of themselves. They are almost like a sport but the entertainment is to be had from failing rather than winning, which is why people are often set up in opposition to each other in these shows.
It is a source of great puzzlement to me that anyone would watch these shows at all, let alone refer to them as ‘Reality’. I would like to make my own show of this type pitching several firms of undertakers against each other.
There would be competition for sympathy for the bereaved, gimmicks to lure business in and a possible finale which would involve the three finalist companies racing to a single grave for the winning internment. Well…either that or Celebrity Autopsies 
) Hang on, mustn’t give away too many good ideas…
Okay – I was walking to work a couple of days ago when I spotted this. It’s one of those occasions when I didn’t want to know what the story really was. Finding out would have been a disappointment. You see this sort of thing all the time and when the reality is presented, the picture you had in your head is ruined. Don’t pursue it, the imagination reigns supreme.
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