Trash TV

My days at home seem to have largely been filled by drinking gallons of tea, eating chocolate biscuits and watching what I call trash TV - those sometimes British but mainly American "reality" dramas or documentaries that you know you shouldn't watch, but look at inquisitively for a few minutes and then find yourself hooked. For me it all started during one bored summer when I flicked onto Laguna Beach - an MTV show following teenagers in the affluent Orange County area of California.
Here are some other suggestions to satisfy the trash TV fix. Go on, you know you want to...

• The Hills - Kind of the follow on from Laguna Beach, this dangerously addictive series (and probably my favourite trash TV contribution) is all about Lauren Conrad and her friends/enemies in L.A. 
• The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - The best of the "Real Housewives" series (although I haven't watched them all, that would be sad). Daily lives and dramas of super-rich women, featuring the aunties of Paris Hilton and the now ex-wife of Kelsey "Frasier Crane" Grammer.
• America's Next Top Model - Somehow, this show (which has versions in dozens of countries including Albania, China and Peru) is in its twentieth season and now features male and female wannabe models. Not quite as good without the hilarious "Miss J," but still worth a look to see the overblown antics and words of wisdom from Tyra Banks.
• 8th and Ocean - Another show featuring models, this time following their dramas in Miami.
• Big Rich Texas - Happily stumbled upon during some late night flicking, this series follows members of a country club and has some brilliant arguments and one-liners: "I don't know whether to greet you or dance under you."
• Storage Hunters - Almost the sensible programme in the trash TV mix, this series is all about storage lockers that are auctioned, with the bidders not knowing exactly what is inside. Each episode features the same group of people buying the contents of the lockers and the "trash talk" is always entertaining.

There's no turning back now!