Scientist: "Rom Coms Spoil Your Love Life"

Wait whaaaaat?!!

You mean that Sleepless in Seatle wasn't real? Four Weddings and a Funeral wasn't based on a true story.... Oh my world is shattered.

But seriously. According to Dr Bjarne Holmes of the Heriot Wat University in Scotland, Romantic Comedies give us a false sense of what's actually real.

I think Dr Holmes might actually be on to something too. Drippy comedies are one thing, but some forms of TV - Eastenders comes immediately to mind - are supposed to be mirrors of real life. Yet they mirror one of the most miserable, argumentative bunch of people you could ever hope to meet. Fact is, most of us wouldn't want to meet them.

They don't swear a lot - only because the watershed forbids it, but the violence and conflict is portrayed with true relish: and complete disregard to the viewers who perceive it.

Could it be that watching Eastenders or Corrie is actually bad for your metal health? There are certainly some (albeit tenuous) links between CRap music and violence; evidenced again most recently by the arrest of one Dizzie Rascal.

I'm against censorship and pro free speech, but I have to wonder if telly really is partly to blame for the breakdown of society. Perhaps these dramas are so close to real life (as are Rom Coms) yet magnify particular areas: interpersonal conflict, that they actually are colouring people's perception.

Of the people I know, those who don't watch Eastenders (in particular because it's one of the worst offenders at prime-time) are far less likely to be confrontational at work or outside.

Ironically, it may be the programmes that seem the least likely to cause harm that actually cause the worst. Few people try to ape the antics of Arnie and Stalone but how many young adults (not to mention older ones) mirror the disgraceful behaviour of soap characters? Don't dismiss this out of hand - I suspect Doc. Holmes might have opened a big can of worms.

I'm just a miserable git by nature, so I can't count myself.

Update: I just got through an entire episode of Holby City (BBC TV) and not once were the magic paddles used: which makes a change.

Seems like every week these mysterious descendants of Baron Frankenstein's workshop magically bring some poor soul back from the brink. Any doctor will tell you that's a bunch of fetid Dingo's kidney - "defib" machines only work in a small minority of cases and even when they do, patients rarely make a complete recovery.

Lucky for us, Holby City is only a fiction; unlucky for doctors though, people actually think this shit works like it does on the telly box - and therein lies a problem. Us ordinary folk go around believing that if our loved ones should fall into ventricular fibrillation, the magic "zapping" machine will make them all better.

Like I said, perhaps Doctor Holmes has a point.