Bido Lito!

“It’s gonna be boss” we were told of the latest representation of Merseyside to hit the nation’s tellies - Desperate Scousewives. I suppose by now you’ll have formed your own opinion on the latest ‘dramality’ programme to clog the arteries of past-its-best UK entertainment but, for what it’s worth, here’s mine.

Now, you might think the cast of vacuous twats lined up to act as Liverpool’s answer to The Only Way is Essex would only result in just one reaction from a blog of this nature. Yet I find myself wanting to hold the opposing view, to label it ‘harmless fun’ and avoid all obvious bandwagoning.

In fairness, it’s hard to side with those who say that such a programme could ever do enough to drag the city’s name through the mud and set it back 20 years. If people genuinely believe that half-hour slots on E4 hold enough insidious power as to set our fantastic city back, then they clearly don’t give us enough credit.

Whilst we are all aware how damaging the stereotype purveyed in Harry Enfield’s sketches truly was to the city’s image in the national consciousness, there is too much opportunity nowadays to redress that balance.

That slight came as a part of a package, a low blow to a Liverpool on its knees after Thatcher, but you’d have to hit pretty hard now to knock a buoyant Merseyside down. When it’s easy to see the progress which has been made in the redevelopment and rebranding of a modern Liverpool, how could you believe otherwise?

Quite frankly, there’s no way Amanda Harrington, or some stereotypically bitchy ‘blogger’ (no, not me) could ever damage that. In fact, they might have a better chance if the show could not alternatively be titled ‘The Only Way Is Widnes’ or ‘Made in St Helens’.

Also worth remembering is the fact that a television programme such as this isn’t made with cruel motive in mind, it is made through stupidity. It is simply the continuation of a vile celebrity-for-celebrity’s-sake based culture, manufactured to dumb us down and showing no signs of abating.

But what damage can the stupid really do? They can clog our Facebook and Twitter with inane shite. They can tune in in their numbers to convince television executives that is what we want. But, there is a simple solution.

Turn it off. Unfriend. Unfollow. A 21st Century mantra for avoiding the idiotic.

But if you’re one of those people who do genuinely believe I’ve got it all wrong and these people are glamorous in some way, have a look at this.