Vogue is nice and sweet... but knows a bad date OFF AIR

ON THE BOX

TRUST me, it’s difficult to dislike Vogue Williams. I can say this with a certain degree of conviction even though I don’t know the woman from Adam. Because I make the assertion as someone who has tried very hard indeed to loathe her and have so far failed.

Of course, she has the irritating accent and affectations of a particular type of middle-class Dubliner. The other side of the balance sheet is that she has matured into an endearing presence on the nation’s screens.

By my reckoning she seems warm, chatty, natural, and – unlike some other far more experienced broadcasters I could name – actually interested in what people have to say.

Seven years have passed since her first appearance on the reality series Fade Street. Since then, she has seldom dropped off the public radar for any great length of time.

Vogue has turned up in a couple of TV dance contests, won the 2015 reality show Bear Grylls: Mission Survive, made a documentary on the Leaving Cert, and had guest slots on everything from Loose Women to a celebrity edition of Catchphrase. Like her former husband Brian McFadden, she has managed to make a little go a very long way indeed.

In the past couple of years, however, she has moved into rather more edgy territory. There have been a couple of short series that examined various topics including women in prison and transgender issues. It strikes me that she is trying to reinvent herself as a sort of poor man’s Louis Theroux, which I don’t in any way intend as an insult.

The first two episodes of this three-parter concentrated on sperm donations and anxiety.

But it moved closer into Theroux territory for the final instalment, as the focus switched to the phenomenon of so-called ‘sugar dating’.

Even though it wasn’t an expression I’d heard before, I could have guessed what it referred to given that the phrase ‘sugar daddy’ has long been in currency. Vogue herself said she only had ‘a very vague idea’ of what it was all about and had to consult her smartphone for further details.

The typical sugar daddy, she explained, tends to be ‘a wellto-do, usually older man who supports or spends lavishly on a mistress or a girlfriend’. I suspect most of the people watching at home knew that already.

The big difference nowadays is that it is all conducted online (or, at least, the preliminary bits are). I can’t say I was hugely surprised to learn that one sugar dating website alone has 22,000 subscribers in Ireland.

But I was more intrigued to hear from one of Vogue’s pals that there are dating sites exclusively for herpes sufferers to hook up with, well, kindred spirits. Clearly I’ve led a sheltered life.

By her own account, Vogue was offered €20,000 by an online suitor to join him for ‘dinner and drinks’ with ‘no strings attached’.

He was willing to lodge half the money up-front and pay the remaining ten grand upon meeting.

But she declined on the perfectly reasonable grounds that she reckoned the experience would make her ‘feel like an escort’.

Others she met weren’t so shy. ‘I had always had a thing for older men,’ said one contributor whose best days appear to be behind her.

Forgive the uncharacteristic lack of chivalry, but the words ‘spring’ and ‘chicken’ didn’t quite spring to mind.

Meanwhile, Vogue was hugely amused when she came across a sugar dating website that cited itself as the place ‘where romance meets finance’. That, she proclaimed through presumably ironic giggles, is ‘a knicker-dropper right there’.

Vogue: For Love or Money? was fine in its own right. But I doubt that Louis Theroux is looking over his shoulder and worrying about the competition.

Aside from anything else, they’re two completely different characters. The reason that Mr T (no, not that one; you know what I mean) works so well is down to his faux-naive approach, an apparently diffident manner, and even that nerdy look of his.

Most of all, he is well practised in choosing the right moment to put the boot in with an awkward question.

Still, I don’t doubt we will see La Williams back on our screens before long. Perhaps they could call the next series Louis Lite.

Streetwise: Vogue Williams ÷ I MAY have mentioned previously that I’m a big fan of Chris Packham’s, pictured, wildlife programmes. And I have always been hugely amused at the way he manages to sneakily insert song titles by David Bowie, Madness, The Clash and others into his scripts on those very same shows. Most of all, though, I now hugely admire him for making an important and moving documentary about how he has spent his life dealing with Asperger’s Syndrome. ÷AT the time of writing, Hillary Clinton’s appearance on last night’s Graham Norton Show had yet to be screened. Much as I would like to think otherwise, my suspicions are that La Clinton knew exactly what she was getting into and adjusted her act accordingly. But I still hope Graham did his best to make her look like the arrogant, power-crazy and deeply unpleasant woman she is. ÷THE main thing that struck me about the George Michael special on telly during the week was Naomi Campbell, pictured, who came across as serene, soft-spoken and gentle. I couldn’t reconcile that image with the mobile phone-throwing diva capable of behaving like a complete and utter monster. Which just goes to show, I guess, how much I know.