Holly and Phil's toxic fallout brutally exposed TV's contempt for its viewers, ... trends now
Like a binge-worthy boxset, the Phillip Schofield saga keeps serving up fresh turns and twists.
Every episode has new information, new angles – whether it is former colleagues such as Eamonn Holmes revelling in revealing their pent-up grievances, or Schofield martyring himself in interviews for the sins of ITV.
Now, even politicians are demanding extra juicy details. In the language of the modern media world, this story has 'legs'.
I know many are fed up with the frenzy. At a time when the world faces a belligerent Russia, the march of humanoid robots, spiralling inflation and fears of another pandemic, this seems to be an apparently trivial tale of a presenter on a daytime TV show who has, it seems, done nothing illegal.
But look closer and the sorry saga is sharply revelatory about so many aspects of life.
Like a binge-worthy boxset, the Phillip Schofield saga keeps serving up fresh turns and twists. Every episode has new information, new angles – whether it is former colleagues such as Eamonn Holmes revelling in revealing their pent-up grievances , or Schofield martyring himself in interviews for the sins of ITV
An example of this was the way Piers Morgan (pictured) was defenestrated from his presenter's job on ITV's Good Morning Britain, claiming he had been cancelled by the 'woke crowd' – blaming Dame Carolyn McCall personally
First, there is our warped relationship with TV, and specifically with on-screen presenters.
It's natural for us to be captivated by human dramas. I've worked in TV as a scriptwriter and on the production side for many years, so I know this all too well.
The exposure of hidden lusts and buried resentments, and sudden reversals of reputation, is compelling. The very fluffiness of ITV's This Morning, with its competitions and cookery and elevenses 'niceness', gives an added element to the dish.
Everyone is hooked, no matter what they say.
MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee have summoned ITV's chief executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, to appear for a grilling on what they call 'a matter of the highest importance'. What actual business is it of theirs?
Progressive ITV is dancing the jig of woke American ideas
Of course, duty of care towards staff, particularly junior ones, should be taken seriously by all employers. But does this particular incident really require urgent, top-level scrutiny from MPs?
For all their lofty language, it's hard to resist the suspicion that politicians simply want a piece of the rubbernecking action.
As for ITV, it seems that its management has got itself into this mess. Worse, the way that the channel's bosses jumped headfirst into the quicksand is illustrative of a much bigger cultural problem that has affected all British television in the past decade or so: a separation from, and a disdain for, viewers.
The projection of the spotless, wipe-clean perfection of Schofield and his co-presenter Holly Willoughby was totally misguided from the start.
It meant that any slippage of their image – the giggly great mates, forever bursting into either laughter or tears – would be a disaster.
Other presenters in similar roles – Dermot and Alison, Eamonn and Ruth – feel like real human beings. But there was always something a little uncanny, a little too sickly sweet, about Phil 'n' Holly.
According to cynical ITV bosses, though,
