It was with a grim fascination that I sat glued to my television set on Tuesday evening when 'NI WAGs' appeared on BBC 1.
There I was, minding my own business after Spotlight's mini-documentary on Alex Success' sham-marriage fiasco, when an even more shocking and disturbing slice of Norn Iron-life invaded the living room. Like the poor suckers caught in the gaze of Medu
sa, I was transfixed and couldn't look away - despite knowing I was about to enter a world of pain and regret.
From the very beginning, it was amazing. When my housemate read out the title of the programme from the newspaper I assumed there had been some horrible mistake. NI WAGs? Surely not. Since when was it ok to stick two random nouns together and make a six-part TV series out of it?
For anyone who isn't familiar with the term 'WAG', it evolved from the 'Wives and Girlfriends' who accompanied the England football team to the World Cup in 2006.
They were a glamorous and beautiful bunch to whom money was no object. They bought designer handbags, they drank, they partied and they watched their men representing their country on the pitch.
The 'NI WAGs' website claims the term has now become something of a global phenomenon, applied to the wife or girlfriend of any man involved in sport. Erm, no. It isn't and it doesn't.
It applies to the wives and girlfriends of superstar footballers, not county Gaelic players.
Armagh GAA player Ronan Clarke - whose girlfriend Leeane Druse features on the show - has an official, annual salary of zero pounds thanks to the nature of his chosen sport. It isn't uncommon for England's international players to earn between £60,000 and £120,000 every single week.
There's quite a gulf in earnings there to be sure.
Apparently, producer/director of the show, Veronica Cunningham, knows WAG territory extremely well. She is married to Ulster rugby fullback Bryn Cunningham.
Hands up who has ever heard of Veronica Cunningham? Or Bryn Cunningham for that matter? Now, hands up if you have ever heard of Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole or Coleen McLoughlin and their HABs (Husbands and Boyfriends) David Beckham, Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney? Exactly.
Veronica says: "The past ten months of my life have been spent caught up in a whirl of wall-to-wall glamour. Filming the hectic lifestyles of these seven girls has provided the camera crew and myself with jam-packed social diaries of our own."
Fair play to her for seeing an opportunity to live the highlife on the back of TV licence-payers' money, but 'shape of' the BBC for broadcasting the resulting rubbish. The website supposes: "Viewers' stereotypes may be shattered when they discover the smart, independent, fun girls behind the spray tans and stilettos."
Unlikely. Not when we're faced with the alarming Zara Shaw practically salivating at the prospect of meeting Manchester United heart-throb 'Christy Ronaldo' (as she referred to him on a number of occasions). She was visibly upset when 'Christy' failed to appear at a charity event and had to settle with the company of her own boyfriend instead.
The full article contains 533 words and appears in Journal Friday newspaper.
