Were you moved by Addicts Symphony?

The Channel 4 documentary on classical musicians who were derailed by drink or drugs went out last night at 11pm.

The underlying story was familiar – a picture of intolerable pressures of high performance – and some of the personal accounts plumbed a deep well of human sympathy.

But the persistent intrusiveness of the medium, the delve for tragic details, verged on the worst excesses of reality TV. It left us feeling with a sensation that both musicians and viewers were being subtly exploited in the service of other agendas – the broadcaster’s obligation to fill its arts quotient, the LSO’s to show public service and the advertisers to be cast somehow as benefactors.

It was not a good feeling.

What did you think?