The Ex Factor?

News that puppydoggish teen wannabe Emily Nakanda has been dumped from X Factor after happy slapping footage of the 15-year-old was released on YouTube recalls a recent Charlie Brooker column. Ultimately, why is when somebody has a heartbreaking story, why can they always sing like angels and not honk like a swan. Mawkish, misleading telly. Now Emily Nakanda, originally pushed into our parents' living rooms as the daughter of a bullied, beaten mother who nearly died or was pushed off a cliff while on fire* is revealed as a happy slapper partial to headlocks and knife threats. Although that never stopped me buying Ike Turner records.

* not sure exactly what mawkishness had befelled poor misunderstood Emily, but I'm certain it was accompanied by strings