Are the Rees-Moggs ready for their new reality?

I felt slightly anxious for Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg when I read he’d agreed to have a reality show made about his family by an American television channel. I imagine most people’s reaction on hearing this was to think: ‘Are you stark raving bonkers?’ But as someone who’s appeared in several reality shows and been followed around by a BBC camera crew for a fly-on-the-wall documentary, I don’t think this was necessarily a mistake. It all depends on how the Rees-Moggs are portrayed, and while I doubt they’ll be able to control that – being given ‘final cut’ on such programmes is a rarity – they should be able to influence it.

The first thing Jacob and his family must realise is they’re not appearing in a documentary, but a drama. It’s obvious to anyone who spends five minutes watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians that the ‘reality’ being documented is actually a series of intersecting narratives revolving around the cast and their romantic relationships, creating a kind of soap opera.