Jeremy Kyle - Im Only Being Honest

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I know what lots of people think. Just who does Jeremy Kyle think he is? What gives him the right to go around shouting his mouth off at people, telling them how to live their lives? Sitting up there in his ivory tower, with a flash car and a celebrity salary: how could he possibly have any idea what life is really like for those poor people crying out for his help? What possible connection could he have with any of the struggling families that appear on his show? Hes never been in their shoes, never had to deal with the problems they face, so how could he have the first idea about what they might need to do to turn their lives around? I BET THAT JEREMY KYLE DOESNT EVEN CARE! Ive heard it before and no doubt Ill hear it again.

And heres the truth: I try and give each person I meet on the show the selfsame opportunity to improve their lives. I realise it may not always seem to be the case but at the first time of meeting a guest, I care about them and their problems. And moreover, I care passionately about the help we can offer them. I cant pretend to have liked everyone I have met during filming plenty have turned my stomach but that is not to say that I dont feel concern about any of the guests. I do. I have not yet experienced a day of filming on The Jeremy Kyle Show during which someones story, personality, ability to cope or determination to move forward has failed to touch or inspire me in some way. I am not the stone-hearted bully so many cast me as, but neither am I someone prepared to suffer the soft excuses so many offer up for their own personal failings. Honesty is a quality I hold in high regard, and when I know it is being withheld, I tend to react.

The vast majority of my detractors see me as someone who takes great delight in belittling the people I meet each day. As long as my name remains on the wall and the audiences still cheer me on, everythings A-OK with Jeremy, isnt it? It amazes me that people think my sole purpose in life is to publicly prey on vulnerable people, goading them in front of the cameras for my own gratification and in the chase for higher TV ratings. If you believe everything you read, the privileges I enjoy make me uniquely unqualified to comment on the problems of others. Apparently, I have no right to try and help the people who seek it from me because the way I go about it is not entirely to everyones tastes. To point out someones flaws is hypocritical, and to do so directly makes me holier than thou.

You might believe a lot of what is said about me, but the reality is quite different. I dont trawl the country searching for disadvantaged minorities to pick on. The simple truth is that I am asked to speak honestly to increasing numbers of this countrys rank and file who come onto my show looking for the help they say they cant access anywhere else. Whether you believe it or not, Britain is awash with a large number of people who just arent equipped to cope with the myriad social problems that are sweeping our society. I cant help but fear for the health of this country if what I see played out before me each and every day is a true indicator of what life is like for so many of our compatriots.

I know it might sound dramatic, but I honestly believe that our nation is hurtling towards a defining date with destiny. For some years now, there has been a time bomb ticking beneath the values British society once held dear, and if we continue failing to grasp the fundamentals of a respectful and civilised society, as many of my guests so clearly do, our country faces collapse. But heres the good news: most individuals have it in them to turn their lives around, and equally, this country has all the talent it needs to shape a better future for itself. However, in order for that to happen, all of us, as individuals and as communities, will have to take on the hard work that the rebuilding will require. And we have to start now! The only request I ever make to my guests before they come onto my show is that they be honest with me. Now the time has come for me to be honest with you.

So, look at me: my name is Jeremy Kyle and I am a twice-married recovering gambling addict. I have a brother whose life has been beset by problems with drugs. His wife was anorexic. I am obsessive-compulsive. My name is Jeremy Kyle and some might say I am one of the most hated men in Great Britain.

I am irritating, infuriating, and unlikely to feature on anyones dinner-party wish list. I have never dragged myself up above the average. Physically, academically or intellectually, my attributes are never likely to score much above six out of ten and I definitely cant claim that any success I have had to date has been built on good looks! Those who dont like me loathe me. My critics say that I am a pernicious presence on our television screens and that I am the one most to blame for all that has gone wrong since the United Kingdom started selling itself short. But, since starting the show four years ago, the people of this country have come to me in their droves to help them turn their lives around. It is a great honour, and incredibly humbling, that so many have seen fit to put their trust in me.

As to how I dispense that help, I have a great belief in a plain-speaking directness calculated to get the message through to even the most unreceptive of listeners. I readily concede that from time to time I have gone over the top when emotions have got the better of me. I can be brutal, confrontational and pretty unforgiving, and I make no apologies for being curt or to the point I have never been one to sugar the pill. I no longer see the value in pussyfooting around the issues bringing this country to its knees. Long ago I made a promise to my employers to be as frank as possible and tell any guest on my show even if they sometimes did not want to hear it exactly how I saw their situation. If people arent forced to confront the realities, the seeds are sown for problems to grow and worsen. The more people I meet through my job, the more I become convinced that this country, and far too many of its citizens, need one almighty kick up the backside. I call it as I see it My name is Jeremy Kyle and I AM ONLY BEING HONEST!

The most vociferous complaints against The Jeremy Kyle Show typically come from those who have only seen it once. An unscheduled duvet day or time off sick give some people who would not normally catch my show an opportunity to flick around the daytime schedules while curled up on the sofa. Many a teacher or doctor will have stumbled across my offerings on ITV1 without any real knowledge of what the show is about. I dont blame them for being more than a little shocked at some of the more outlandish cases that Im asked to referee. In the early days of my tenure I too was aghast at just how low some people had sunk. Now, some four years on, the stories are no less shocking, its just that I am less shocked by them. I guess that the regularity with which I am obliged to confront all that is going wrong in our society has inured me to some of the extremes. I have reluctantly come to accept that the major problems I initially thought might only affect a small percentage of the population are in fact frighteningly commonplace. Every day I tackle tales of family breakdown, delinquency, abuse, addiction, violence, teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency. And the worrying truth is I dont have to look far afield to find too many others adversely affected by these issues; they are queuing round the block to get into our studio to benefit from the help we can offer.

Many critics of the show say that by broadcasting and discussing the problems of our society in an open forum, we are compounding rather than improving them. Well, I cant help thinking that that is absolute bollocks! The current breakdown in society we are witnessing has been brought about by thirty or forty years of successive failures at both a governmental and individual level. The people who argue against my show are seemingly happy to ignore the devastated social environments up and down the country that contribute towards its degradation. My agitators see me as deliberately destroying the fabric of society, profiting from the disadvantaged for cheap thrills. Nothing could be further from the truth we are actually giving help to some of those whom society has left behind: the evidence is all there. Those critics are wrong and I dont mind telling them why.