The Valleys

For some time I have been vaguely aware that there is a reality television programme on MTV called The Valleys. 

Then last week, rather against my will, I sat through an episode and then a second episode until I took over the remote control and switched it off (these episodes were not from the latest series, I think they were reruns).

I am sure others have reviewed this programme, and there must be little that I can add except to say that it makes Geordie Shore look demure.

But as I watched (perhaps endured would be a better word) The Valleys I recalled an article written by Jan Morris and published in the Guardian on 6th August 2007:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/aug/06/comment.politics2

In this paen to Welsh nationalism and cultural purity Jan Morris tells us she looks forward to Wales being liberated from "the United Kingdom's squalid public culture of greed, gameshow, tabloid celebrity and national pretension".

Obviously Jan Morris is unaware of manifestations of Welsh culture such as The Valleys.

Indeed one is forced to conclude that Jan Morris is an idiot who does not know the first thing about Welsh culture outside the very narrow and exclusive confines of the (mostly invented) bardic tradition of the Eisteddfords/Eisteddfodau.

Perhaps a future episode of The Valleys could involve a trip to the national Eisteddford/Eisteddfod?