Caroline Flack found dead

Wrote this about one strand of thought from Flack’s death. Blog url here - https://t.co/vGAlRD4TwY?amp=1

The death by suicide of TV personality Caroline Flack at the age of 40 has provoked a torrent of online discussion across a spectrum of topics. In the hours since her passing the discussion ranged from the UK media’s saturated coverage of her recent legal trouble, the part played by online abuse from keyboard warriors she has received, how it was important to appreciate the seriousness of the accusations against her and that she was “no angel”, the fact that she is the fourth person with a connection to Love Island to take their own life, the CPS’ role in pursuing legal charges against her for the violent attack on her boyfriend.

Flack’s career was as a successful host of light entertainment shows such Love Island, the X factor and as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. Her down to earth, fun style connected with audiences and it was said that they felt they knew her through her personable style.

Given the circumstances of her death it is arguable if audiences really knew her at all.

The genre of light entertainment in the UK and USA is one I find somewhat troubling as I see it as based completely on being upbeat as opposed to being real. Shows hosted by Graham Norton, Jimmy Kimmel, James Cordon and Jonathan Ross are completely transparent and unashamed that no actual personal authenticity will ever feature as part of the show. Celebrities will appear to promote their latest release and tell stories that have been honed by their publicists and agreed with the production teams of the show. The audience will be instructed when to laugh and when to clap. Everything is artifical, nothing is authentic. Everyone is showing nothing else but their most upbeat side for their 5-10 minute slots and then cut to commercial when presumably the guests go back to being their normal selves.

When anyone dares to challenges these rules like Joaquin Phoenix once did on the Letterman show the audience react with inane nervous laughter at a person who clearly was under stress.

Ireland, thankfully, has gone another way. The Late Late show has always being unique in that it allowed non-celebrities on as guests to describe extraordinary circumstances they may have found themselves. Or celebrities come on and instead of reciting bull**** anecdotes they talk about loss, depression or stuff that just angers them; see any of Brendan Gleeson’s appearances on the Late Late show. Of course there’s still plenty of light as well as shade on the Late Late Show but at least it’s a reflection of life which is perfect for no one but about having hope for the future and having more light than shade. The Tommy Tiernan show has also shown that it will even push the boundaries of this format further by having all guests come without any prior notice given to the host of their identity. A completely natural conversation will therefore ensue.

British television media increasingly reflects the image at the expense of personality mindset I associate with Instagram. That, yesterday, the BBC have had the licence fee done away with by the government and the likes of the Guardian have to crowd fund on their website suggests this “stupidification” of the media has a while to run. That Piers Morgan, with his demagoguery, is championed over nuanced intellectualism is further evidence of this.

Whether Flack’s career as a light entertainment host and the constant fake cheeriness that role demands had anything to do with pushing her towards depression and suicide would be a tenuous claim for me to make. I did note that when Gerry Ryan passed away, the Late Late Show that night were able to scramble together a show of the people within RTE who knew him best. It formed a touching, cathartic tribute to a nation that was shocked by very unexpected news. Is there even a facility within the current TV schedule offered in the UK that would allow a show like that to be put out without it seeming very out of place?

kylith wrote: »

He was a secret cross-dresser*, had been accessing porn on the laptop belonging to the school he worked at, and his note said that he had been 'caught red handed' and Clodagh's mother Jacqueline said: “Hawe said he was leading them to a life of ruin and Clodagh would have to clean up his mess. We still don’t know what that mess is". Clodagh's family believe that the details are in his suicide note, but they have not seen it, but they have said that at the very least he had probably been caught masturbating in school.



*Nothing wrong with cross dressing, but he obviously felt ashamed of it.

Most of that is red top conjecture. It's very likely that he was delusional. In fact, the experts that poured over the evidence concluded he was mentally ill. Not sure why people insist on ignoring that.

It's possible to condemn an action committed by someone who is mentally ill.

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I think you’ve a fair point, and I’ve experienced it happen in a number of circumstances where people are reluctant to have the authorities involved simply because they don’t want the humiliation of their private lives being made public. I’ve always respected that, but I wonder in this particular case now could this guy find himself facing charges of wasting police time, or will the authorities decide he’s been through enough? Be interesting to see are the CPS as eager to pursue a prosecution against the boyfriend now.

Also to the best of my knowledge, kylith is a woman



(And welcome back kylith btw, where are my manners? :pac:)

Why would he face charges for wasting police time? The police were pressing charges, not him. Have you spent all day posting in this thread with the mistaken view they the boyfriend was pressing charges?

The police seen enough that night to take what happened extremely seriously, and felt they had a case against her. Thankfully, the police don't base their decisions based solely on the alledged victim's comments.

Hammer89 wrote: »

It spoils the picture that they're trying to paint, which is that Caroline Flack is a psychopath.

If you whack someone over the head with a lamp, while they're sleeping, you quite possibly could have psychopathic tendencies... people sometimes do die from such attacks!

Quite often what happens, is that someone's behaviour will get gradually more and more aggressive over time. Rage is not something that goes away easily... you have to work very hard to curtail such emotions and control your anger. Otherwise it can spiral out of control, until someone dies or is seriously injured!