THIS week the BBC has been given a rise in the licence fee, and ITV is complaining that advertising revenues are declining.

Yet what are we being given on our TV screens at the moment?

Recently, it has been a diet of so-called reality TV (if this is reality, I live in a fantasy world), non-singers singing and non-dancers dancing, and repeats.

In these programmes we are repeatedly reminded of the telephone numbers, and acts are reprised in case we have forgotten them. Are we the public all morons that have to treated in this way, or is this the view of the public that the broadcasters have?

What has happened to the plays and dramas that demanded that we concentrate and follow the plot? Perhaps this is having an effect on our children, who are not getting the training of following a story.

Surely it is time that we informed the controllers of television that we wish to be entertained, not treated as infants.

David Milburn, Garth Avenue, North Duffield, Selby.


FURTHER to the avalanche of coverage concerning alleged racist bullying inside the Big Brother house, I cannot help but feel that those who have howled their protests are perhaps the real racists among us.

While it is true the actions of Miss Goody are both vulgar and offensive, it is quite clear her verbal assaults on Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty are based on a clash of personalities and vast cultural differences rather than skin tone.

In fact, so insignificant is the hue of Miss Shetty's skin to the celebrity inmates of the Big Brother house, she has been treated exactly the same as anyone else who has the misfortune to clash with Misses Lloyd, Goody and O'Meara.

Rather than rant our misguided moral indignation, we should be celebrating the fact we have become such a diverse society these days that we no longer feel compelled to act in a different way towards people from contrasting ethnic backgrounds.

Instead our social interactions, for good or for bad, are based solely on the merits of the individual.

The underlying and unsettling suggestion of the complainants seems to be that because Miss Shetty is not white, to engage in a verbal clash with her is unacceptable. I submit that it would be unacceptable for the housemates to deliberately avoid such flashpoints.

Surely it is the ultimate goal of any tolerant society that ethnicity becomes an irrelevance, and in terms of social interactions, everyone is treated in a natural and honest manner.

Barry, Clifton, York.


The Press asks if the Big Brother furore reveals something ugly about British society (Big Brother Bother, January 19).

I, for one, think the only ugly thing revealed is what pure trash Channel 4's programme Celebrity Big Brother is and the misfits who clamour to get on the programme to aid failing careers.

What on earth the gorgeous Indian Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty is doing appearing on this series is beyond comprehension; it should be renamed Beauty And The Beast. I am at a loss how anybody gets a kick out of watching people either sleeping or verbally tearing each other to bits.

It also speaks volumes about the people who are addicted to watching it.

Bob Waite, Holgate, York.