The Tawdry Side of TV

The disappearance from TV screens in the UK of The Jeremy Kyle Show is not before time. This tacky and unseemly form of so-called ‘entertainment’ has been around for far too long.

As Kevan James argues elsewhere on KJM Today however (News Commentary: An Unpleasant aspect of British Culture), the more disturbing questions surround why such shows exist to begin with. There is little doubt that society in the UK of 2019 is a coarser, more violent one than it used to be but TV output, including talk shows and programmes like ‘Eastenders’ that act out the worst of ourselves to the exclusion of anything else cannot hide behind the excuse of ‘portraying real life’ any longer.

Much has been made of responsibility in recent times and this must include what it shown on television.