Things I Like - 5 - Reality TV

I think of the term "reality TV" quite lightly. I'm fully aware that everything you see on telly is produced and edited for entertainment purposes and is not "real" in almost any sense - and it's a darn good job it is edited, otherwise shows would be incredibly boring (like when they used to show 24 hours of live Big Brother. Yawn).

Image Here

When I'm home in the day and able to select from the pretty dull rice, beans and pasta smorgasbord that is UK daytime TV, I've got to admit I'm partial to a little bit of The Real Housewives of Orange County (above) and Supernanny (below {in case you couldn't tell which was which}). I don't have kids but I do have big respect for Jo Frost who is incredibly good at her job, and who seems to have to work more on the parents than the kids. She goes from being your typical nanny to mediator to councillor with a mere flick of her ponytail. I just want to be her friend!

Image Here

Two "reality" shows I have drawn the line at watching are Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex. Luckily, to this day, I have only seen adverts and not actually seen the shows. I feel like I've had a lucky escape. Frankly I'm a bit of an inverse snob, I'm pretty working class and watching a load of toffs get drunk and embarrass themselves is just too much for me to take. I saw enough of that kind of behaviour during the rugby team initiations at uni to last me a lifetime. TOWIE on the other hand turns me into a regular snob. I find myself looking down my nose at them and their common vajazzling ways and would rather stick pins under my nails than watch either of these shows...

Image Here

...buuut maybe you think the same about shows like Britain's Got Talent, The Voice UK (who is that Irish guy anyway?!*) or The X Factor. I suppose I should confess right now that I'm a massive fan of talent shows. I never went to Butlins as a kid but I imagine that's the kind of place where the British fascination with talent competitions began! Since Diversity (and Ashley Banjo *swoon*) became so successful and awakened me to the existence of modern street dance I have harboured this secret desire to join a crew. Yeah that's right, a street dancing scientist! Unfortunately my dancing looks like someone put me in a straitjacket and set my feet on fire so it's unlikely my dream will become a reality.

Anyway, daydreaming aside, I just watched last Saturday's episode of Britain's Got Talent and was really impressed with Hope Murphy's cover of Maxwell's cover of Kate Bush's 'A Woman's Work'. Skip ahead to 2:40 in the video if you want to avoid the small talk. I love the kind of stunned silence at the end when the audience are unsure if it's over and then everyone starts cheering. My heart got truly warmed!

Another BGT video I've added here just for good measure is the one with Charlotte and Jonathan who sang something (from 1:55) that I've never heard and were incredible! Well I have to say Jonathan was incredible... Charlotte was lovely but unfortunately paled in comparison.

And just to round off on the reality theme, here are some minature foodstuffs a talented dude from Israel is selling as jewellery on Etsy which look very real but aren't. Please don't eat them!

 

*Interestingly when I just Googled "That Irish guy off The Voice" the first hit was Peter Griffin. That's right, even Google doesn't know who he is! Eeek!