Five years of The Only Way is Essex haven’t just made Amy Childs,Mark Wright and pals into stars, it has also made Brentwood a very contemporary kind of cultural destinationBrentwood in Essex is domestic to what must be the most opulent Slug and Lettuce in the country. Chandeliers hang above the boozing City boys and glamorous twentysomethings who sit on crushed-velvet chairs, or enjoying the first end on a night that may well end up inside the Sugar Hut nightclub across the road.
It’s what you might call the Towie effect. When The Only Way is Essex first aired on 10 October 2010,its structured reality format and cosmetically enhanced, orange-hued beings we saw on screen felt like a gimmick: Hollyoaks relocated to the edge of the M25. Critics mocked the characters acting their way through their own lives in such wooden fashion that it must possess been scripted (it wasn’t exactly). Comedian Gráinne Maguire summed it up: “Nothing happens in it. It’s like a never-ending hen night mixed with Waiting for Godot.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com