I recently overheard my husband honking and sniggering and asked him what he was laughing at. Incapable of speech, he merely gestured to the television screen - upon which was a woman dressed in a cow suit singing and dancing about the stage, clutching at her rubber ‘udder’ as she did so.

At first suspecting some awful ‘arty’ remake of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, I was astonished to find that I was in fact viewing an actual contestant on one of the ‘Idol’ shows. Now, you may or may not actually watch them, but you’d have needed to be the sole occupant of a very remote cave for the past year to have not noticed the ‘Idol’ phenomenon.

It’s sweeping the world with its promise of fame and fortune to the winner of each grueling series, and despite the fact that there now seems to be a multitude of such shows, hopefuls still show up in their thousands for their big ‘chance’.

I’m beginning to suspect that the only reason people get hooked on these shows is the curious combination of pity and hilarity that accompanies the additional auditions. Once you’ve seen a guy wearing his underpants on the outside of his clothing signing ‘Rubber Ducky’ (complete with quacking), you’re bound to be left wanting more !.

Which is a good thing, because the trend doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. Friends and relatives who have enough tact to tell their ‘aspiring musical artist’ that they should give up and take up tennis seem to be in short supply.

An entire entertainment industry boom is based on the total lack of a loved ones’ ability to just say “Dear, I think you should reconsider the cow suit”. Instead, convinced that the bovine attire is the winning edge needed, out they go full of confidence, only to find themselves later featured in a programme called something like “Well, At Least They Tried”.

In the event of a loved one of mine becoming convinced that they were destined to world fame via donning a disturbingly anatomically-correct animal suit, I’d like to think that I’d at least try to reason with them about their choice of tactics.

Because, after all, if your friends won’t tell you, several million television viewers certainly will.