Instascam alarm Belles
THE BBC1 programme BAD INFLUENCER: THE GREAT INSTA CON (10.35pm, also on BBC iPlayer) is a cautionary tale for our times. It shows you how, if you open an Instagram account and accumulate sufficient disciples, you can fool a lot of people for an awfully long time.
Not you personally, I hasten to add.You’re a nice person. No, I mean people like Belle Gibson.
In 2013,Tasmanian-born Belle set herself up as an internet wellness guru, off the back of an extraordinary claim. Namely, that she’d been diagnosed with multiple cancers, been given just a short time to live, but had outsmarted conventional medical science by embracing alternative remedies and a plant-based diet.
Now, I must confess I’ve never been a big fan of gurus, online or otherwise.And since the concept of “wellness” only really took off in the 1950s, you’ll forgive me if I still approach certain aspects of that with equal scepticism. I dare say it’s got a lot going for it, so please don’t let me put you off if it’s your thing, but there’s a certain indefinable fluffiness there that leaves it ripe for exploitation by less scrupulous souls.
So it doesn’t surprise me in the least that Belle Gibson turned out to have been telling porkies, or at least the vegan equivalent, and that she’d done rather well for herself as a result.
Nor does it surprise me that, as the programme reveals, so many people swallowed her lies.
But wasn’t there a time when rotters like this had to work a lot harder to dupe people on such a scale?
Now it seems as though social media, which thrives on encouraging a collective mindset – frequently naive, ill-informed or a whole lot worse – is doing much of the graft on their behalf.
Elsewhere tonight, in the final part of INSIDE TESCO: 24/7 (C5, 7pm) we hear how wonky or ugly potatoes, although still carefully separated from the prettier ones, face a far happier future nowadays than they did in less enlightened times.
Admittedly not to the point where they’re offered counselling, although I’m sure that will come, but at least by going on to lead a happy new life as, say, potato mash pie topping.
Also this evening, can the talented team on tonight’s episode of the THE REPAIR SHOP (BBC1, 8pm) fix a FirstWorldWar shaving mirror, a Second World War saxophone and a kettle that’s 80 years old?
Yes, of course they can. I’ve watched goodness knows how many episodes of The Repair Shop, and I’ve yet to see the owner of a precious family heirloom being told: “Great news, mate! We binned it, had a whip-round and bought you a new one.”