We’ve recently blogged about The Great British Hairdresser on E4 which is now drawing to a close.
Gemma’s old friend (& hairdresser) Daniel Granger has done particularly well from the series, increasing the influx of new clients to his Northampton salon as well as media opportunities in the future.
The good thing about this type of ‘reality’ programme is that participants are required to have a skill, talent or modicum of ability in order to be selected for the show. This is not, of course, the same for some of the other questionable programming on our screens at the moment.
The effect of trashy American programmes that are phenomenally cheap to make (& in my humble opinion look it too) like The Hills, Jersey Shore & Real Orange County Housewives is huge.
We’re now being asked to watch plebians in The Only Way Is Essex & the forthcoming series Made in Chelsea & Geordie Shore…
It was only yesterday that I read an article about the French series Spiral (a personal favourite of mine) which is shown very late on BBC2. It’s a short (6 eps), brilliantly written, beautifully filmed, perfectly acted, gritty series. It’s like The Wire but in French!!!
Sprial is so good it even prompted the Prime Minister to ask why commissioning producers in the UK don’t green-light brilliant British series more often! The UK exports brilliant actors, film makers & all sorts of other creatives, but it rarely celebrates, promotes & utilizes the incredible abilities we already have at our disposal.
I must admit at this point that I am a proud pedant, but will add the caviat that I’m not against the augmentation of language; changing, tempering & adding to the lexicon. Is it necessary, however, to do so when English is already the most vast of all modern languages with poorly conceived, undescriptive words when there are a plethora of superlatives to express practically any thought or sentiment you may have…
Turning back to The Only Way Is Essex for a bit, the ‘stars’ have opted to furnish us with the word ‘reem’ (a synonym for attractive, hot, great, brilliant, sexy) & abbreviations like ‘well jel’ (jel = jealous), as if their lives are too busy to speak in plain English & so abbreviations & jargon are necessary!
As a voice coach, actor, director & teacher it’s a worrying forecast for the future of British society that the lowest common denominator is so celebrated, rather than skill, talent & ability.
It makes the future careers of my singing students (most of whom are planning a life in entertainment) where they’ll constantly be undermined by reality TV.
I say vote with your feet & switch over to another channel’s dramatic programming to support the arts.