Jeremy Kyle: The UKs Jerry Springer

British people, but in particular the English, were known the world over for being a reserved people. The stiff upper lip may have been mainly the privilege of the higher classes but most English people exercised a certain reserve.

Occasionally drunken parties, and the like, would see these tight lipped individuals letting their hair down but such events were rare.

Somewhere along the line most of this changed.

Perhaps it was the swinging sixties but, whatever happened, English people began to lighten up. Of course, some more than others. However, in recent years this seems to have gone a little too far.........

Now don't get me wrong, I believe that people should get things off their chest and not bottle up their worries and problems.

However, why would anyone in their right mind want to do it on mainstream television.

The Jeremy Kyle Show.

Jeremy Kyle is aired on ITV in the weekday mornings. It is repeated on a digital channel later in the day. The shows are actually repeated over and over again also.

The show follows the tried and tested formula of such shows.

Jeremy Kyle is the host and each show will have a theme. It could be child abuse, drunken parents, abusive children and the like.

The studio audience is a cross section of the general public. However, I guess only a certain type of person will want to be part of this audience, so it will not be a fair representation of the public at large.

Here is an example of a couple of contestants and a show:-

Sue thinks that her husband is gay. She believes that he is having an affair with her son's teacher. Sue appears first in order to give some background to the situation. Once she has done this, firstly her husband and then the teacher, are brought on stage and asked a series of personal questions.

It turns out that her husband is not really gay, but is having an affair with the teacher's mother, unbeknown to all concerned. When all of this is out in the open, another secret is finally revealed. The teacher's mother is in reality Sue's birth mother!

This confusing scenario is totally fictitious, made up by me. If it sounds familiar to you then this is just a coincidence.

In general

The scenarios tend to be just as silly and far fetched as the one above. Of course in our modern society perhaps it is not far fetched.

However, what I still cannot understand is why anyone would want to air their dirty laundry in public???

Jeremy Kyle now seems to be popular and has a wide viewing audience. I tend to hear it in the distance, as the ward's patients, where I work, sit glued to the TV.

Some shows include lie detector tests, DNA tests and results, counselling and psychiatry help. Every so often there will be a touching moment, which seems to change the people in questions life for the better and for good.

I guess there will be the odd genuine case, when such TV meetings are the only way forward. On the whole though it is like trial by jury.

Probably some of those taking place only want some publicity, but at what price.

We have had similar shows in the UK for a while but Jeremy Kyle seems the nearest thing to Jerry Springer in his glory days.

The show experiences violence, ludicrous situations, heartbreaking scenarios, verbal and physical abuse, worrying information and more.

Now, I can see the point of receiving counselling for some of these problems, but why decide to get things out into the open on British Television.

I guess the English reserve may not only be gradually disappearing but finally be dead and buried.