Between the Pages

Barry and Cheryl are a young, desperately poor couple, who get picked to appear in a reality television series about poverty in Britain.  Initially, they are taken to the hearts of the public, but predictably the tide of opinion turns – fuelled by a ruthless tabloid press – and they find themselves reviled, hated and scared to show their faces in public.  And then their three children are kidnapped, and events take a truly monstrous turn.

This book sums up so much about why I hate reality television.  Such programmes can be exploitative and cruel, making heroes and villains out of ordinary, often vulnerable people.  Barry and Cheryl think that all their dreams will come true by appearing on this programme – and for a while it seems that they are right – but the media care little about them, and encourage the public to vent all their hatred on this young couple, determined to show them as irresponsible and greedy dole-scroungers (if this all sounds familiar, it’s probably because there are programmes that do EXACTLY this, although this book predates many of the current crop of such shows).  The venom with which they are treated – and it is mainly aimed at Cheryl, rather than Barry – is breathtaking and disgusting.

The twists and turns come thick and fast, and at times I was not sure who or what to believe.  As the public animosity takes its toll on Cheryl, her thoughts become confused and a sense of paranoia creeps in.  I found the story utterly compelling, although in many ways it was not at all enjoyable.  It was all too believable, and quite accurately reflected how people are worshipped or reviled as a result of their appearance on programmes like the fictional one in this book ‘The Dark End of the Street’ – yet they are not really prepared or equipped to deal with such strong feelings from a public who don’t really know anything of them, other than how the programme makers manipulate their appearances on television.

My only real criticism of the book would be the final two pages.  The story is completed by then, and these last couple of pages feel like a clumsily tacked-on, and unnecessary epilogue.  Other than that though, it’s a gripping thriller which can make for uncomfortable reading.