Good Grief, I'm Having a Flashback - The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle

Did you see the new Jennifer Saunders/Tanya Byron comedy show, The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle, last night?  It's a sitcom about a daytime talk show.  Having worked on more TV talk shows* than should be legal, it felt more like a documentary rather than a comedy to me. So in future episodes I look forward to:

• Production staff referring to programme guests as "pond life" (prompting presenters to ask "How pondy are they?" about each show's guests);
• People being paid to cry onscreen.  Worse than that, people being paid to reunite with long lost relatives ("Yes I will come and meet my long lost sister, but I'll need £100 to turn up").  And your favourite and mine, the classic people being paid to propose.
• Guests being offered only doughnuts and sweets before a show, so they go on air on the crest of a sugar rush.
• Producers thinking that a show about orgies is a terrific idea for a daytime TV show, and laughing hysterically when viewers with children phone up to complain.

The only bit that didn't ring true was the producer with a child (albeit one she didn't see). You'll find precious few working mothers on daytime TV - shame, because it might improve the shows if more of the people making them had experience of life as it is lived by their viewers.

*Though I never worked on Kilroy.  People who'd worked on Kilroy tended to shudder in an uncontrollable way when they talked about it, and I figured this was NOT A GOOD SIGN.