That’s entertainment!

The Daily Mail once called Brass Eye ‘the sickest TV show ever’ in a master stroke of life imitating satire. Like most people my age I’m not easily shocked or offended by anything on TV (or radio, see Sachs/Brand/Rossgate) but Vanessa Feltz’s latest vehicle has managed it. No, it’s not the curiously entertaining Cosmetic Surgery Live (may it rest in peace), but a program called Top 50 Celebrity Breakdowns on Sky. The mental health problems of celebrities are constantly being exploited for entertainment but the honesty of the title of this show is outstanding. Perhaps television producers finally ran out of ideas for “Top 50” shows and so resorted to making a program about the Best Ever Nervous Breakdowns. Feltz even has the nerve to use phrases like “lose the plot” and “moments of madness” while beaming at the camera, before introducing a bunch of talking heads commenting on celebrities like Amy Winehouse – drug addict, former eating disorder sufferer, and likely candidate for having borderline personality disorder. The sectioning of bipolar Britney Spears also scores highly. “Doesn’t it make you feel good to see celebs paying the price for fame?” Concludes Feltz, salaciously. I’m sick of mental health problems (and that includes addictions) being portrayed in the media as some sort of joke, and not real illnesses.