"Is this the real life, is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide, no escape from reality ... " as the band Queen once sang. Photograph: PA
No guest should expect an easy ride on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, but should they just sit there and weather the host's acidic script, whatever it says?
Preston's walk-out from the set has attracted "hissy fit" headlines, which seems to imply he was being oversensitive - rather than being restrained, and not reacting strongly to Simon Amstell's outrageously patronising joke at his new wife's expense. After all, not only was his missus insulted - but her class background.
Simon Amstell mockingly read from Chantelle's autobiography: "I've always loved M&S, but it was always too expensive". If that strikes a chord (and Marks & Spencer stores do reek of middle-class snobbery, in case you hadn't noticed), then your blood might well be boiling too.
In many cases, it could be argued people who put themselves on the Celebrity Big Brother pedestal, with their vacuous exchanges shared by millions of viewers, then embark on a real-life soap-opera romance, have their wedding funded by OK! Magazine and so forth, lay themselves wide open to ridicule.
But this particular attempt at raising a titter is nothing but snide snobbery. And shame on Bill Bailey and the other panelists, who rather than protesting merely responded by plucking a Preston lookalike from the audience to take the place of the departed Ordinary Boys singer. In this case, the ultimate object of their derision - those who can't afford to strike back - was not fair game.
