Maybe there are too many documentaries portraying drunken yobbery

For the last few weeks there has been a documentary (999: What's Your Emergency) on C4 purporting to deal with the problems faced by emergency services staff. In reality it is just another excuse to film shocking scenes of drunkeness, violence and self-harm taking place in Britain on a run-of-the-mill Saturday night. Cheap, sensational television in other words.

Esther Rantzen has been bleating in the Mail Online today about how she is so sad for young girls of today who have no good role models and so go out binge drinking instead.
Of course Esther is just trying to get some good publicity for herself after the revelation that she may have known about Jimmy Savile's behaviour at the BBC and done nothing about it.

I don't pretend to know why young people behave as they do in modern society but it occurs to me that maybe part of the reason is because they can get themselves on television. There has been a surfeit of this kind of programming over the last few years - presumably because it is so cheap to make and requires so little imagination or thought. And I include wild police chases, street crime and rapid response type programmes in this too.
It is just a fact that young people seem prepared to do anything to get themselves on television and regard it as a badge of success.

I am certain of one thing however; I intend never to go to Blackpool (where 999: What's Your Emergency was filmed) under any circumstances.

And one more point that would seem to be more than mere coincidence. Most of these cop shows that deal with police chases and sundry criminal behaviour commonly feature police vans and high visibility vests with HEDDLU POLICE clearly marked upon them. I have no idea where Heddlu actually is but it must be another extremely lawless place and not a suitable destination for the Permanently Peevish.