The Princess and the Alley Cats

I don’t normally watch reality television shows as I consider this a rather cheap form of entertainment. We are currently in the middle of what is arguably one of the most popular shows on British television; Big Brother produced by Channel 4 who took the format invented by a Dutch producer and has made it into a successful series.

In the show a number of celebrities live together in a house, isolated from the outside world, for a period of time. Each week viewers vote to evict a celebrity and the last one remaining wins a prize.

This year the show includes a Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty, who whilst being unknown here in the UK appears to be a household name in India. The show was struggling to gain an audience for the current series and two key contestants walked out of the show within the first few days. Audience figures were dropping and critics described the series as one of the most boring and lacklustre to be produced ever.

All this has changed in the last few days with 5.2 million viewers watching and even I have started to watch the show with interest. The show has prompted over 19,000 formal complaints to OFCOM the broadcasting regulator which is a record. The programme has prompted discussion amongst MPs in the Houses of Parliament and caused embarrassment to Gordon Brown, soon to be UK Prime Minister, during his current visit in India.

The controversy centres around the treatment of Shilpa by three of the contestants and whether the producers should intervene in what is being described as blatant racism. Talk shows and newspapers have been analysing the bullying of Shilpa and how the events in the Big Brother house reflect British society in general.

The ring leader is Jade Goody with her side kicks Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara. The trio are the epitome of ’white trash’ with limited vocabulary and poor education. Racism and victimisation of others is the only way of raising their self esteem. The show was an opportunity for these girls to meet people from other cultures and expand their horizons a little. They have chosen instead to wallow in their ignorance and isolate themselves as a trio.

Much has been said around the reasons for their treatment of Shilpa beyond basic racist attitudes. Shilpa is intelligent, articulate and has refined manners. She can engage in a conversation on almost any subject and has real talent. In stark contrast Jade, Danielle and O’Leary have little knowledge of the world and it is only by mere luck that they have been plucked from their unremarkable existence to a life of affluence. They are conscious of this and have resorted to racist victimisation in order to overcome their insecurities and low self esteem.

A key question is to what extent are these women representative of mainstream British society? In the words of Shilpa herself; ’Is this what the UK has become?’ I fear the answer is yes very much so. Many of us are educated and work for multi national corporates where the people we meet are far from being representative of mainstream British society. Watching shows such as Big Brother makes us realise what ordinary people, we often see waiting at bus stops and living in sprawling housing estates, are really like.

The reality is that most Brits are poorly educated, narrow minded and with little thirst to learn and experience anything beyond their ’pie and mash’ dinners and British beer. The decay in British society has been insidious like a slowly spreading disease it creeps up on you and by the time politicians and leaders realise what has happened things will be difficult to reverse.

If Shilpa represents India, as she has said during the show, then the people of India can be justifiably proud. She has shown patience, dignity and fortitude in the face of a concerted campaign of harassment We have learnt that Jade, Danielle and O’Leary lead a feral existence whilst Shilpa has shown us what it means to be civilised.