IT HASN’T been a great year for the big players of reality TV. Big Brother bored the pants off we viewers, as well as the housemates. Pop Idol has seemed interminable, with only the ‘will she, won’t she win it’ debate around Michelle keeping the tension levels up.

Speaking as a member of a household where the recorded output of Will Young is cherished, it gives me no pleasure to observe that the sparkle has gone out of the format. Fame Academy was more interesting, for all its bad press, exposing to the world a genuinely talented young woman who also happened to be a lesbian. Alex Parks will be around a little longer than David Sneddon managed, I suspect. The vogue for making C-list celebrities out of ordinary people is passing