Thursday Daytime TV (9/1/06)

I'm sure we all have moments from our adolescence we'd rather file away, and being unexpectedly confronted with them can be difficult. In my youth, I had what is probably known as a 'badboy' boyfriend and we would occasionally purchase recreational drugs from a local council estate. Ultimately I became quite good friends with the seller and the people who frequented her house, but - bearing in mind I'm a decidedly middle-class doctor's daughter - I tended to stick out a bit on these visits. In fact, if someone got grassed up as benefit cheat or their home was raided by the Drugs Squad I would immediately become paranoid that they would think it was me; the outsider. From my objective viewpoint, it could feel rather like being in the audience of an early-morning chatshow sometimes - dramas would unfurl where someone would get pregnant by a neighbour's boyfriend, or have a lesbian affair while their husband was inside, or have to break the news that they were homosexual to their ignorant, exceptionally violent brothers. A real-life episode of Trisha. Maybe not so surprising, therefore, that the recreational drug seller was ON TRISHA yesterday. It's nice to catch up with people I suppose but I wasn't quite prepared for it to happen via the medium of telly. Trisha's guest was still 25 stone, still unemployed, only difference was that she'd had a baby with a sixteen-year old. Trisha told her to lose some weight and get a job. The only job I ever heard this woman consider was being a madam in a brothel, so I think Goddard's onto a lost cause. The experience has somehow taken the shine off such morning TV for me, and I normally love a bit of Trish in the a.m. Maybe it was all about some kind of kinship I felt with the guests given my own diversion into that world years ago. But to have the connection REALISED like that. My God. It's a bit thought-provoking. Has anyone else actually recognised someone on Trisha or The Jeremy Kyle Show? Please tell me I'm not alone......
Brenda did amazingly well on Deal or No Deal yesterday - although she did deal a round too early. With the 'Power Five' still in play in the 5th round she was offered £84,000 but had already dealt at £57,000. Damn! I'd have done the same though; everything can change in Deal or No Deal so quickly you see. And she had £50,000 in her box so she still did a good'un. Nailbiting it was.