Another black day for desperate reality television show format

The rape allegations being made by three women participants on Channel 4’s Married At First Sight are as predictable as they are depressing.

The show and others of its genre has been an allegation waiting to happen, ever since the format was copied from the original MAFS on Australia’s Channel Nine. Formats of shows such as this, as well as others such as Love Island, Naked Attraction and even the more anodyne First Dates are bound to attract desperate people.

What better way for these people to get their rocks off than to give them the platform of reality TV? Have we learned nothing since Jade Goodey was so publicly humiliated, appearing live and naked on Big Brother 20 years ago?

OK, I’m old. I can remember when Blind Date was considered a wee bit risqué. It was unbelievably tame. Cilla Black hosted a load of young people trading smutty innuendo, in the hope that two of them might end up as a couple. Some did.

I’m sure there were quite a few applications to go on the show from

desperate, frustrated men. I’m also sure that Love Island must attract millions of applicants from the sexually desperate, that Naked Attraction is a magnet to exhibitionists. Surely it’s not rocket science to weed out any truly sleazy operators?

British television has a shameful history of employing sexual predators whose offences have been covered up for decades. The crimes of the likes of Stuart Hall, Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile were swept under the carpet for years. What kind of signal did that send out to members of the public?

Forty years ago, the new Channel 4 stood for integrity and campaigning journalism. It’s staggering to think that now.