XIII Oceans

You won’t be surprised to learn that I’m a fairly regular watcher of BBC2’s The Culture Show, a weekly show about the arts for people who know very little about the arts but read the left of centre broadsheets. I imagine that you’ll also not be surprised to read that I am not a great fan of Lauren Laverne either because I haven’t heard anybody I know actually say they like her.  However, I am worried that my previous indifference to her is being influenced too much by what others around me think and I’m not sure what I should be thinking.

It’s difficult to understand how she’s managed to get presenting job after presenting job on the back of being in some shitty little indie band that were a complete pile of toss, Kenickie. Why does Laverne annoy so many people? As an individual I don’t find her to be offensive, inarticulate or enthusiastic, which I’m sure others do. No, it’s simply that she’s a bland presenter riffing off the far better “I’m going to flirt with the camera” Jayne Middlemiss, whom Laverne appears to have based part of her presenting ’skills’ on.

I’m told that Laverne knows her music, because she used to be in a band and managed a hit with a proper one, Mint Royale, some time ago. However, it’s one thing actually knowing about music and understanding it, in the same way that it for anyone with knowledge on a particular subject. Throw into that her incessant postmodern irony and a frankly all-too-obviously-scripted interviewing style and you have one of the most annoying presenters on television.

Of course this kind of criticism is usually overlooked in instances where the presenter has a semblance of physical attractiveness about them, so I wonder if we’re begrudging the woman because she’s landed some inevitably great paying jobs, without having much to offer. A triumph against the odds and against the beautiful people that we usually rage against who are empty vessels with big presenting contracts. Should we be celebrating her success as a an average looking person from Sunderland who’s pushed in ahead of all the Quizcall wannabees to get such prize gigs as The Culture Show, XFM Drive Time and CD:TV!  Great exploiter of her mediocre talent or someone using her minimal indie cred to sell out quicker than a Wii?

Why don’t we like her?