IT does amaze me that so much TV and national press coverage is given to Channel 4's Big Brother.

Even Labour MP Keith Vaz said it was his favourite programme and yet he has complained about racist abuse by some of the housemates.

I confess to not having ever watched an entire programme, only seen glimpses when I have channel-hopped trying to find something worth watching.

But clips are shown in the main news and I end up saying to myself "If you don't like it, then don't watch it".

Personally I think any of those so-called reality programmes are totally naff.

How can you simply watch people behave and speak so badly and call that entertainment? Sadly even the celebrity versions are not much better.

Television has helped pull down this country from one of being proud to be British to its lowest level of filth, being crude and over the top violence.

In many cases I can not understand what people are saying. Not just because they do not speak well, but they do mumble.

I do not mind so much when it is simply private conversations between everyday people, because that is not normally being televised although with so many hidden cameras, listening devices in use these days, do any of us now have any privacy?

It is no wonder Britain is fast slipping down the league of top countries and have lost a huge amount of respect from aboard as we do not know how to behave any more.

Television sets a bad example and should not be encouraged. Rather like politics, we are told it is what we want! Whilst my understanding is that in fact are indeed turning off.

The question is then, why can not we have some decent programmes instead? I do not mean more DIY or house-related, or cooking programmes which to we vegetarians are usually quite repulsive.

More clean comedy, more drama without too much sex and violence.

I have no problem with nudity and keep murders in police stories to how they use to be in the good old days of film, a gun shot, then body lying on the floor, not all the blood and guts used these days.

Do you think that it is one reason we have so much crime? I have said it before, we must protest and not sit back and watch this Country go to the dogs. Tell your MP your thoughts. Write to the newspapers. Get on television and complain. Phone into radio stations. Don't leave it to others, like me, as you readers get fed up of seeing the same old names.

Yes, I might be a bit of an eccentric but at the same time, I am quite harmless.

RICHARD GRANT, Burley.