General Chat

I must have led the same life as you have led Sue, and I have to say I am happy to have done so. I have only watched the show once and thought JK was a terrible man and seemed to incite anger and goad to get a reaction from some of the participants. He was shouting and stormed off the stage at one point. Clearly the people involved have serious issues, and need some sort of help, how sad the we have to resort to showing them at their lowest point in a very distressing situations in order to make a TV programme.

Paula and Cynthia - I certainly won't judge people's circumstances but it's the fact that they are prepared to show to the world all their problems. If their problems are so bad then it is sad. Do the producers of the show get them some help?

Sharron. Bit before my time, Bedlam.

Don't think we necessarily feel superior if we don't live like that - just amazed that all our normal rule books for living contentedly are thrown out of window.

Chester Zoo would be a better analogy perhaps. And I wonder if they would pay to see how we live - watch us eat meals together when we can, talk in a friendly and quite way. Must be quite odd these days.

My gripe is that it's all shown on the television. I hope I haven't come across as looking down my nose at the way other people live their lives. As Cynthia pointed out there are many reasons why people live the way they do.

I try really hard to be tolerant of the way other people live because no-one knows what goes on behind closed doors and how people's family dynamics work.

I think we watch it because it is road crash telly. Nothing to do with whether we lead better or worse lives. It is just so different.

I do hear people in pretty abject poverty and leading quite difficult lives saying that Kyle makes them feel better and they see that there are people worse off than them. But certainly not worse off in material terms.

Kyle himself was a gambling addict (hope that is right) and many problems within his own family, including drugs. So he very much knows which levers to pull to get to the root of problems. And there used to be a chap that used to take the more disturbed away and give them counselling help. Haven't seen programme for a couple of years, so might not still happen.

Sue I agree It is not the participants that I have issues with but the way the way the show uses them to make a TV programme.

I too wonder why they want to raise these issues in public Sue and can only think some of them may be wanting their '15mins of fame'.

Have a feeling that the producers put them in touch with folk who may be able to help them but not absolutely sure. It does make you wonder if they are exploited in some way though, as it must bring enough revenue in for the programme to continue.




No, don't worry, you haven't come across as looking down your nose at all :-D

Is it a big nose, Sue? I've got a shortish one with a bobble on end - so absolutely impossible for me to look down my nose at anything or anybody. I do sometimes frown round my bobble though :-D

I watched one program for a short time the other week where two women were arguing about whether they shared the same father as he had just died.

The woman "A " whose father it was agreed to have a DNA test to prove to the other woman "B" that they weren't half sisters. They came out with the results and it proved that they weren't half sisters. They went onto say that the man who had died could not be Woman B father.

My thoughts were , if the mother of Woman A had been promiscuous how did she know that the man who had just died was her father. It could have been that Woman B, who had been told by her mother that the man who had died was her father was in fact the real daughter and the other woman just believed she was the man's daughter because he had brought her up.

I think there is a saying about knowing who your mother is but you can never be sure who your father is.-j

"Wise man who knows his own father". Not sure of my mother either. She used to ride a bike ;-)