Spying On My Family revealed some unexpected poignant moments for TV reviewer Calum Henderson.
Imagine there's no privacy, a new British reality show urges us to consider. It's easy if you try: no hell below us, above us only Dad, scrolling through your Instagram account on a special surveillance iPad, losing his temper at all the thirst traps you've been liking.
This is what
the kids signed up for on Spying On My Family, the hour-long special that sounded like it was going to be the next step in the convergence of reality television and the dystopian tech nightmare anthology Black Mirror but ended up being an oddly affecting and poignant family drama.
For a week the Kirk family were rigged up with cameras everywhere they went and had their mobile devices tapped so that they could all see exactly what each other were up to. For worryingly immature ex-cop Rob, this meant making a beeline for his sons' Instagram accounts and flipping his absolute lid at the parade of flesh he found in their liked posts.
"I've never seen her before in my life, so how the devil does Ryan know her?" he wondered about some blurred-out bikini-clad temptress. The oldest 37-year-old in the world, Rob had never used Instagram before in his life and didn't have a clue how any of it worked.
"There's a woman on George's who is wearing next-to-nothing," he spluttered. "She don't even live in this country!"
