Television crusader Esther Rantzen CBE took time to reflect on reality television for a special event for the RTS Southern Centre at Southampton Solent University in association with the Wessex Media Group. She was interviewed by Mike Fuller, a director of factual indie Topical Television.
Esther herself has appeared in a number of high profile shows from "Strictly..." to most recently "I’m A Celebrity..." and is a champion of the genre. Talking about her groundbreaking "That’s Life!" days, the producer/presenter acknowledged that the show was one of the sources of reality television. "We brought to the screen some amazing talent… Britain had talent then!" She told the audience how she cried when watching Susan Boyle perform on ITV’s "Britain’s Got Talent": "I love the fact that you can give Susan Boyle a platform. Here is a woman with a voice that is so beautiful and an image that says no-one has ever told her she was lovely".
Speaking of her experiences in the jungle Esther said she only once forgot the cameras were rolling, however, "you can’t get people like us to act, we can only react. Especially when we were up to our knees in mud, starved and suffering." She wanted to know what happened when people challenged their own limits and how they chose to do that. She took part in the series for two reasons; curiosity about how the show worked and defiance against those close to her who advised her strongly not to take part. Mike asked how real it was and Esther responded "it is a reality but not the whole reality".
When asked if there was a line we should not cross in reality TV Esther said that we had come close to it on several occasions. Some shows in particular walk a tightrope though recently we have moved away from that precipice. "What I worry about are people in previous series who have been quite vulnerable… we have to be careful about putting people in circumstances where they appear to be brutalised by the situation. That is bad news because of what it does to me as a viewer. I turn in to a voyeur. It’s like going to a public hanging".
Interestingly the prolific broadcaster has never watched any of the reality programmes she has appeared in. Esther made the distinction between her ‘presenting’ roles and ‘producing’ roles and it is clear that she prefers the latter. Will the next project for Esther be a new reality show or one of the many serious documentary ideas she is passionate about… well that’s up to the commissioners!
Thanks go to Esther for a fascinating and insightful evening, and also to Southampton Solent University and the Wessex Media Group for their support.
Kate Beal