'Father of reality' slams reality TV

Documentary-maker Paul Watson hit out at reality TV as he picked up a Special Award Bafta at the glittering ceremony.

Watson, who hit the headlines over controversy about whether or not he had filmed the moment of an Alzheimer's sufferer's death in his moving film Malcolm And Barbara: Love's Farewell, is credited as the father of fly-on-the-wall TV.

Today the documentary-maker, whose films have included Sylvania Waters, and The Family, a ground-breaking series which followed the everyday life of a family in Reading, lashed out at reality TV.

Backstage at the London Palladium, after picking up his award, Watson said: "I'm certainly not the father of such b*******.

"My real worry is we've had 15 years of young filmmakers doing what they're told by 12-year-old suits who haven't a clue what life's about, who have forgotten how to think. We have to skip a generation."

He said of X Factor judge Simon Cowell: "He's an entertainer but he's also a symptom of today, which is the bully factor. There's too much bullying which goes on.

"We've been taught to sneer. We've become a sneer culture. It does not make me laugh. It makes me f****** angry."