Essex might not be The Ony Way it would seem after thousands of local residents across the region leapt to the defence of Essex after the premiere of new television show, The Only Way is Essex.
ITV2's new flagship reality TV show, The Only Way is Essex takes place mostly at Brentwood's Sugar Hut and stars Jack Tweed's best friend, Mark Wright amongst others.
Narrated by Denise Van Outen, the show has attracted high viewing figures for ITV2, but has run into trouble with local business people and community leaders across Chelmsford and the wider region, who branded it as 'fake' and 'pathetic'.
One particularly enraged group of local people has also set up a group on Facebook, berating the show and arguing that it portrays the county in an 'un-realistic' and 'stereotypical' fashion.
One member commented: “I’ve lived in Essex all my life and this show is just so out of order. It’s like a pantomime."
“It’s just living up to every stereotype you could come up with about Essex people."
“If you watched this and didn’t come from Essex, you seriously would think this is what we are all like. It’s a joke!"
Several celebrities also joined the debate, with Alan Carr and Katie Price both posting comments on Twitter about ths show.
Radio 1 breakfast host and DJ, Chris Moyles also initially ploughed into the Essex-hating argument with a series of on-air rants about the tv show, but revoked his comments following a night out in Brentwood last Friday.
Chris explained on his Radio 1 show: "We had a great night out in Essex – we had a laugh. The people were really nice."
“Everyone we met was proud to be from Essex, and rightly so.”
