Trump, Farage and Hancock have done it. Now, the ex-Conservative minister joins the list seeking to reinvent himself via reality TV – is it really ok, though?
We have to start by getting all of the Jacob Rees-Mogg caveats out of the way: Jacob Rees-Mogg is staunchly anti-abortion, even in cases of incest and rape; Jacob Rees-Mogg is still, amazingly, pro-Brexit; Jacob Rees-Mogg admires the political machinations of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump; Jacob Rees-Mogg once slouched down in Parliament in a way that made Caroline Lucas get mad at him. Then we have to cover the “MPs on television” caveats: Matt Hancock shouldn’t have been allowed to reform his image on I’m a Celebrity, Farage shouldn’t have been either, and while I’m at it I don’t like Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain. Now all the caveats are out of the way, a fun one just for me: Jacob Rees-Mogg looks like an umbrella Dracula threw away so he wouldn’t have to take too much baggage on to the ship Demeter. There. Now we can get going.
All that is to say, Jacob Rees-Mogg this week launches a reality show on Discovery+ (from Monday). It’s one of those statements that makes you feel you perhaps made the wrong sandwich choice once in 2014, leapt on to an alternative timeline as a direct result, and now we’re here. But no: ham and cheese was correct, this is really happening. His wife Helena is in it, his various children are in it, his castle is in it, his SW1 townhouse is in it, his nanny is in it, a man called Sean who buffs his vintage Bentley is in it, his mother – whom he calls “Lady Rees-Mogg”! – is in it, the buildup to the 2024 general election is in it. There’s a lot of idle playing with cricket balls, dressing too formally for dinner at home, actually saying “yah”, and a big coordinated two-car drive to Boris Johnson’s birthday party. It has to-camera confessionals and scenes of unbelievably familiar domesticity and a few snatched glances of moments you can very much tell they would have preferred had not been captured in full HD by a crew. It is, by any measure you’ve got, fairly impeccable reality TV show-making.
