To the Manor Born: Charlotte Raven on an All-Action Reality Show That Exploits Everyone Equally

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When I was a little girl, I went to a wrestling match with one of my crazed Cornish aunts. The thing that scared me, much more than the antics of the men in the ring, was the women, whose faces were contorted in what seemed like genuine hatred for the black-caped baddie. The thing they were shouting at wasn't real, but somehow their emotion was. I'd never understood what they felt like until I watched Masters and Servants (Channel 4, Thursdays, 9pm). Knowing that the reality show was a set-up, that the combat was always in some sense contrived, did not stop me from feeling just as angry with its pantomime villains as my aunt had been with the Camborne Crusher.

In the blue corner for the second show was Christine Rose, a builder's wife from Warrington whose defining traits were vicious …