Simply thunderstruck! (From Bournemouth Echo)

Simply thunderstruck!

7:30pm Tuesday 7th July 2009

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IS it just me, or is anyone else sick to death of celebrities?

They really seem to be taking over every aspect of our lives these days.

Don’t get me wrong – not so long ago I was the first in the queue every Tuesday when the new copies of the gossip mags came out, desperate to see what Posh was wearing, who Jordan was slating and which were the latest famous couple to break up.

But just lately it’s all become a bit too much.

I recently went on a long train journey, so decided to treat myself to a thicker, monthly magazine which featured – gasp – just one celebrity interview.

The rest of the pages were full of the experiences of real people and, far from being uninteresting, it was so much more inspiring to read about the amazing achievements of “ordinary” men and women.

It made me realise just how much of our lives have been taken over by celerity culture. Instead of proper news, the front pages of national newspapers are filled with the latest instalment in the Jordan and Peter separation, or who the real parents of Michael Jackson’s kids are.

Even ordinary TV game shows have been bitten by the bug – I’ve seen Celebrity Family Fortunes, Celebrity Wife Swap, Celebrity Come Dine With Me, Celebrity Mr and Mrs, Celebrity Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and Celebrity Big Brother to name a few.

It’s always been my dream to appear on Family Fortunes – my absolute favourite cheesy game show – but it seems now I’ll have to bag a starring role in a soap opera before I can attempt those Big Money questions.

And, entertaining as it sometimes is to watch celebrities making a fool of themselves on reality TV shows, when will the programme makers realise that the real genius of these shows is in observing the great British public?

• TALKING of programme makers, I’m getting rather tired of being treated like a three-year-old when watching an adult show.

I first noticed it during last year’s Strictly Come Dancing, when presenter Tess Daly commented each week on the judges’ vote.

If, for example, Craig Revel-Horwood voted for one couple and then Arlene Phillips wanted to save their rivals, Tess would step in and helpfully announce – “that’s one vote each”.

Well, thank goodness someone knows what’s going on – there’s no way I’d be able to follow this madness without her keeping me clued up!

But it seems now we can’t even be trusted to interpret the weather report for ourselves.

Not content with getting it wrong on a daily basis, I now notice forecasters have taken to explaining in detail what the day will bring, to ensure that when they don’t get it quite right, they really don’t get it right in the slightest.

GMTV’s Claire Nasir cheerfully announced yesterday morning that we could expect some thunderstorms during the course of the day.

She went on to explain, helpfully: “That means thunder and lightning”.

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