So last night I went to see the Independent Live debate at the Marlborough School in Woodstock, part of the Literary Festival that's going on in those parts at the moment (tomorrow I'm off to a talk on Queen Victoria - whee!). It's the first time I've been to one of the WLF events, I don't know how I missed it the last few years but this year they seem to have about a million events I would have liked to attend. As it was I managed to restrict myself to one free one (the debate) and one that I have to shell out £10 for (Queen Victoria). I have to say I was thoroughly impressed by the debate last night and don't think I've ever enjoyed myself so much in a school hall (and I've seen many amateur musicals in such places).
The debate was chaired by Penny Smith, of GMTV News fame, who looks much prettier in real-life than she does on TV and was wearing a very spangly silver top. She was replacing Mariella Frostrup, who had to drop out, but frankly I doubt even Mariella could have done a better job. Penny was charming to the audience and firm with the debaters, and I can even forgive her rather obvious lack of knowledge about Big Brother (tsk). The main participant in the debate, Janet Street-Porter, also had to drop out, which was a shame but, for me, didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the evening. As it was the final four participants were: Tracey McLeod (journalist apparently - I've never heard of her but she seemed nice enough), Alex James (formerly of Blur, now makes cheese, contributed very considered responses but seemed rather serious), Dom Joly (somehow the words 'roly-poly' always attach themselves to his surname whenever I think of him, anyway he was very funny), and Johann Hari (another journalist; wasn't aware of him before last night but now suspect I love him a little).
I've never been to a public debate before but I thoroughly enjoyed this one - here were four well-informed, witty, well-spoken people discussing trash TV at length and with every sign of enjoyment. Hari in particular provided a spirited defence of Big Brother and extolled the virtues of older reality TV shows like 'Touch the Truck' - being apparently horrified to discover that the contestants on Touch the Truck were allowed breaks from the truck-touching and therefore weren't as hardened as he'd believed. I also enjoyed the more serious discussion of X-Factor and whether small children should be allowed to watch it as it apparently condones bullying - I have to agree with the audience and panel on this one. Having watched one series of X-Factor I was put off it for life by the "freak-show" in the final episode where some of the most deluded auditionees from the first few episodes were paraded in front of the audience for further humiliation.
I felt a little out of place in the audience of middle-aged, tweed-clad, coiffed Woodstock residents, being sat there in my jeans and also being a big fan of Big Brother, but they all seemed to respond in good humour to the debate and there were some interesting questions from the floor in the second half of the evening. The final conclusion, I am pleased to report, was that all four participants answered "no" to the question of whether reality TV debases modern culture, and I came out of the hall feeling heartened by the experience, and slightly less guilty about my love of Big Brother.
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