Clare Johnston
LAST week brought to a close several of my favourite TV programmes, leaving me feeling at a loss.
Sunday nights were all about Homeland, the brilliant American spy thriller that grabs you by the throat, hurls you around the room then leaves you gasping for breath when it’s finished.
Monday nights brought the unabashed joy of watching David Tennant, who may have just overtaken Andy Murray as my most-admired Scottish male/inappropriate crush, and Olivia Colman in Broadchurch.
Together they were a magnificent and gifted force in portraying flawed yet lovable characters who can speak to our hearts even without words.
That last week marked the end of the current series was hard enough to bear but I was gutted to find that was the last ever episode.
And now, there is only one more show left in the latest season of my third and final favourite – the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
It’s bitchy, mindless and features displays of wealth so vulgar Liberace might have blushed. And I love it.
My sister, who only cottoned on to this visual feast a couple of months ago, is now equally captivated by it and has a whole seven series left to gorge on. Lucky thing. My mother saw the first episode and refused to watch on, calling the reality show’s stars “a bunch of spoilt brats”.
But I have learned something surprising in following their over-thetop lifestyles and jaw-dropping antics. Behind the inch-deep foundation, there is a grit and determination that unites these women. All of the current stars work hard. They are all glamorous – they can
afford to be, after all. And they each refuse to bow to their age. A good case in point is Erika Jayne, the 45-year-old wife of Erin Brockovich’s lawyer Thomas Girardi, who launched a pop career in her mid-30s that is still going strong. I was ridiculed in a group text discussion with friends last week when I suggested I found watching RHOBH motivating. “No! Really? No, Clare,” one replied, indignant. “Ridiculous, yes, but motivating?” But I stood my ground. “Only by watching these women did I realise you don’t have to lie down to age and you can get better with time,” I texted back. I know their lifestyle is false and unachievable – and, in all honesty, I don’t fancy joining them in scrabbling around for the “best” bag, car, invitations, friends who can further you, etc. But there is something about their resolve to make the most of themselves and take life as far as they can that I do find intriguing and, yes, inspiring.
It’s bitchy, mindless and vulgar.. and I love it. RHOBH is inspiring