Wednesday 7th November

It is no use bewailing the fact that programmes like X Factor are so popular; the general public seem to love them.  Talking to a an acquaintance recently I realised that what I consider dross is exactly the opposite for the vast majority of TV viewers, who seem to exist on a diet, though glut may seem a more appropriate description, of Eastenders, Corrie, Emmerdale, X Factor, and Strictly,   I do here apologise if I have missed anything off that list, but my knowledge of such matters is mostly hearsay.

There have always been ‘popular’ programmes, but since the turn of the twenty-first century, or maybe just before it, we have had a new phenomenon – saturation.  When I was younger and would fall in love with certain ‘unmissable’ programmes of the seventies and eighties, at least we had to wait a whole week before being immersed in the rubbish again.  But now we have saturation dross, night after night of ‘I’m a Celebrity’ – whole weeks of ‘Big Brother’, repeat after repeat of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’, even ‘Strictly’ stretched over three nights.

And now there is i-player and the possibility of watching crap twenty four, seven.  At least with the schedules you were at the mercy of someone else’s inanity.  Now there is nothing to stop you in the race to the bottom.

In the never ending search for popularity there is no floor.  The dumbing down of the dumbest has so far found nowhere nearly down enough.  The lowest common denominator has yet to be reached.  Lately I have taken to the adage that if I miss a certain programme it is a bonus.  Of course with i-player and skybox-plus nothing now is missable, dross is with us forever.  Welcome to the brave new world.