The Only Way is Essex 'snobby' critics slammed

The Only Way Is Essex's ex-story producer has criticised the "snobbery" surrounding the show's Bafta win. The ITV2 show - starring Mark Wright - won the viewers' choice category at the TV awards this month. Daran Little said the show followed on naturally from the likes of Big Brother and that its "scripted reality" format was here to stay. He told the Radio Times: "I was surprised by the snobbery surrounding the triumph of TOWIE, a series about a group of Essex 20-somethings. "If fans want to show their appreciation by voting for it, what's the problem? Maybe it's because it seems that viewers want to wallow in the lives of 'ordinary' people, to laugh at their stupidity and shout out their catchphrases. "After all, isn't this the next evolution of Big Brother? To film fame-hungry but seemingly talentless young people in their natural environment rather than in one big house?" Daran, who picked up a Bafta for penning drama The Road To Coronation Street, said: "Maybe, just maybe, in 50 years' time it'll be just as hard to imagine life without structured reality shows." He left TOWIE after the first series but went on to story-produce E4 show Made In Chelsea, which follows socialites on and around London's King's Road. He said: "For me, Chelsea is a different show to TOWIE. "Last week a guy broke the news to his girlfriend that things weren't working out and he wanted to finish it. She had no idea it was coming and it was horribly real - and I couldn't drag my eyes away."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.