The truth about Jeremy Kyle

The inquest into the death of Steve Dymond, the unfortunate man who was found dead a week after his appearance on the Jeremy Kyle Show in 2019, gives one the odd feeling that society has changed a lot in a short time, while at the same time not having changed at all. The days are gone when daytime TV was synonymous with the likes of Jerry Springer – the originator of the three-ring circus school of television – and his English imitator Jeremy Kyle; now it’s a much more sedate affair, with the likes of Homes Under The Hammer providing a low-level buzz of banality to accompany one from breakfast to tea-time. But that doesn’t mean the moral high ground belongs to us.

Unless in one’s dotage, ill or a shift-worker, there was always a taboo around watching daytime TV; in a world where being ‘super-busy’ was a favourite boast, the idea that you had so much time on your hands that you could spend half an hour watching a bickering expat couple do up a chateau made you about as socially sought-after as herpes.