Where does reality end and reality television begin these days? A show as pointlessly bitchy as Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother has been blown up into a public controversy, while the real-life issue of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has been reduced to a reality TV bitch-fest by BBC Panorama.

As Shakespeare might have put it today: “All the world’s a reality TV studio/And all the men and women merely housemates.”

Some of us had assumed that Celebrity Big Brother fitted another of the Bard’s descriptions — “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. Yet allegations that housemates are bullying Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress, have been treated as a clash of civilisations, sparking diplomatic protests, questions in Parliament and a police inquiry. Both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair felt obliged to condemn racism in response, while the Indian Government pledged to “take appropriate measures”. Perhaps it could bomb the Big Brother house.

At home the tawdry events have been relished in some quarters as “proof” that racism is rife, reflecting “what happens on the streets in everyday Britain”. I don’t know about you, but on the streets where I live it is not normal for a professional chav who has made millions by playing the loudmouth to be locked in a hothouse with a precious Hindu princess.

Their domestic rows seem to be more about class and petty jealousies than race. Those who insist instead that such incidents must be seen as an indictment of bigoted Britain reveal their own pet prejudice — contempt for the binge-drinking, burger-eating, Burberry-wearing classes. You can no longer talk about council house scum, but at least you can call them racists.

Over on the BBC, the current affairs flagship Panorama returned as a reality TV witchhunt against Mohammed Taranissi, the famously successful IVF doctor, complete with shaky secret cameras. Worse, the show appeared to have been effectively scripted by the regulators of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, who have long had Dr Taranissi in their sights. The HFEA even staged a press conference and police raids on his offices on the day of the broadcast — just in time to make the final edit.

What is a public body doing taking part in a reality TV circus? Why are regulators acting like needy starlets parading about for an audience rather than meeting the needs of infertile couples? Just as those behind the Celebrity Big Brother farce should get the flak, so the HFEA should be in the firing line rather than the doctor. The shame is that, unlike Jade and co, the unelected regulators cannot be voted out.

Through the peephole between reality and reality TV, perhaps we can glimpse a truth about our petty-minded, voyeur-exhibitionist, celebrity-soaked, PR-obsessed culture. To quote Shetty (out of context): “Is this what today’s UK is? Scary.”

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