It’s easy to see TV talent shows as three-ring circuses of cheap emotion, empty promises and bitter tears – but they have their bad points, too. While I can appreciate a dancing dog or knife-throwing nutter as much as the next man, surely only a sadist could contemplate the new Saturday evening smorgasbord of stultifying mediocrity – Let It Shine (BBC1) followed by The Voice (ITV) – with anything but sorrow.
TV talent shows can be seen as a righteous reaction to the relentless tsunami of nepotism which now drenches the entertainment industry – traditionally one of the very few escape routes for sparky working-class kids too pretty for a life of crime. No wonder popular culture often seems so exhausted and uninspired, weighed down as it is by so much lucky sperm and celebrity afterbirth churning around in it. And while only 1 in 10 British children attends a fee-paying school, 60 per cent of those in the music charts did, compared with 1 per cent 20 years ago.
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