Posted March 27, 2019
Lorraine Kelly received a special award from the Television and Radio Industries Club. In her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, earlier this month, she told her audience: “It's really good to be the best you can be, but please don't forget to be kind.”
Lorraine doesn’t forget. It’s her business to be kind, as anyone who tunes into her morning television show will witness. Watch her interviewing her guests. Note how she laces her speech with positive affirmations: “it’s great”; “it’s good”; “you’re an inspiration"; “you’re in a good place”.
These well-worn phrases are dished out to everyone regardless of who they are or what their circumstances are. I suspect her cleaner gets the same treatment. For me, that’s a problem. I’ve now heard these niceties so many times that they’ve lost their impact.
In fact they’re beginning to sound more like a script.
It doesn’t appear to matter if the script matches the character or not. Lorraine can’t help herself. The same words keep forcing their way out. It’s a form of sycophantic Tourette’s.
I couldn’t believe it when she told Helen Mirren, during a live studio interview, that she too looked as if she was in a good place. Helen Mirren couldn’t either. Her eyes widened and she reacted as if she’d been tasered. To be in a good place implies that you’ve come from a bad place: drink or drugs addiction, a failed relationship or a mental health crisis but are on the road to recovery. Let’s just say it was an awkward moment, or else Lorraine knows something about Helen that we don’t.
It’s a shame because I actually do like Lorraine. She’s right in thinking that there needs to be a counterbalance to all the negativity that is currently seeping into our lives. Kindness is a good thing (oh no, she’s got me at it too!), but only if it seems genuine. Otherwise you risk becoming a parody of the very thing you’re trying to nurture.