The Only Way is Structured Reality

In many ways, the BAFTAs are like a school play performed by a relative’s progeny; you may have constructed elaborate excuses so as not to have to watch it, but despite your earnest efforts you’ll hear about it anyway. That and at some point, one of the performers will forget their lines. Oh, and you can safely assume that someone will walk onstage wearing a pipe-cleaner creation.

Apparently, this year there’s been some controversy over the award of a BAFTA to The Only Way is Essex, or “TOWIE” to fans of acronyms.




The Only Way is Essex represents something of a new genre – ‘structured reality’. Not to be confused with augmented reality, (or proper television, for that matter), structured reality offers “real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way”. With programmes such as ‘Geordie Shore’, ‘Made in Chelsea’ and others of that ilk successfully vying for screen time, perhaps it’s worth exploring what drives people to consume this sort of output. At heart we’re all voyeurs. It’s the reason that super-injunctions are contested and why fly-on-the-wall documentaries can be so compelling – as a species, we’re fascinated by the minutiae of the lives of others. That and people with unusual names. ‘Binky’, ‘Funda’ , ‘Cheska’ - they sound more like European cars than people.




‘Caggie’ Dunlop, of Made In Chelsea. I’m going to go ahead and assume that it’s short for ‘Cargaret’.

So perhaps it is no great surprise that ‘TOWIE’ managed to triumph over Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Miranda, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings and The Killing in the YouTube Audience prize.