Roger Moore blasts 'cruel' TV

Ex-James Bond star Roger Moore has launched an attack on the state of British television, branding shows such as the new-look Blind Date and The Weakest Link “cruel and humiliating”.

Speaking to reporters at the British Comedy Awards in London last night, Moore said the trend had probably originated in Japan and started in the UK with Anne Robinson’s hugely successful BBC game-show.

But the former 007 was less impressed than the viewing public have been, and also berated Cilla Black for the changed format of ITV’s Blind Date.

“I’m rather disappointed in what is happening today in television,” he said.

“We seem to have gone into an age of cruelty where everything is put down. I think it started with The Weakest Link, but it is being rude to people.”

Moore said he was particularly saddened by the way Blind Date had become more confrontational.

“Even I notice dear Cilla Black has got a new format. Now they have “bitch” - a poor girl comes up and if you don’t like her face, get rid of her.

“I think it’s absolutely terrible, it’s appalling, it’s humiliating,” he said.

He had this message for the show’s long-standing presenter: “You’ve got a lorra, lorra charm, but don’t be nasty, or don’t have a nasty format.”

Comic Jack Dee said developments in TV would tend to reflect the nastier side of life.

“Television, if it’s allowed to, will sink down to reflect our lowest instincts and that’s what it does sometimes and it will bring about that cruelty that people want to see,” he said.

One Foot in the Grave Star Richard Wilson joined the musician Badly Drawn Boy, aka Damon Gough, in complaining about the dominance of “boring” reality TV shows.

Gough dismissed reality talent shows like Fame Academy as “absolute rubbish” because they gave young artists completely the wrong impression of the music industry and of their own success.

David Sneddon won Fame Academy on Friday night, and he said at the time he would not lose his head with his new life as a star and the car and luxury flat he has won for a year.

But Gough predicted that the winner would have only two or three years of success and in reality he had “nowhere to go”.