How a long-forgotten suicide helped define reality TV voyeurism

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In his new book Edge of Reality: Journeys Through the Rabbit Hole of Reality Television, investigative journalist Jacques Peretti describes watching as, over the years, reality TV “built a surreal parallel universe of nerd virgins, ice truckers, gold-diggers, hooch-brewing farmers, Elvis impersonators, naked couples on a desert island, families competing for the best funeral ever, bakers making the weirdest cupcakes or contestants fighting a grizzly bear”. Of course, viewers find it hard to simply turn off – reality formats are designed to be, as one unnamed producer puts it to Peretti, “the crack cocaine of TV”. open image in gallery Original ‘Big Brother’ host Davina McCall with Craig Phillips, the UK show’s first winner, in 2000 “I totally think it’s possible,” Peretti says, “but will it happen? open image in gallery The focus of Jacques Peretti’s ‘Edge of Reality’ is the industry’s hidden mechanics – the ‘tricks of the trade’, as the author puts it “TV loves self-cannibalisation,” Peretti notes.