EMMA LEE I know I've said this before, but I am seriously thinking about whether I should give up TV. You see, I'm not sure whether my jangling nerves can stand it any longer.

EMMA LEE

I know I've said this before, but I am seriously thinking about whether I should give up TV. You see, I'm not sure whether my jangling nerves can stand it any longer.

Take, for example, one Thursday the other week.

Before I go on, I'll clarify that I do know that I'm in control of the TV, and not the other way around, but for some strange reason I was unable to switch off.

My evening began with EastEnders, the focus of which was teenager Stacey Slater's pregnancy.

As any regular viewer knows, Albert Square and long-lasting happiness don't go together. The description "harrowing" doesn't even come close.

Then to cheer myself up I turned over to Dragons' Den. If you haven't seen it, this

is where hopeful entrepreneurs and inventors have to convince five successful business people to invest in their products.

Most fail miserably. Not only do they fail to get the money but usually the fire-breathing ones manage to burn their dreams to cinders.

At least with Dragons' Den you get a happy ending of sorts - they always keep the product that the "Dragons" decided to invest in until last. And if you stare at Duncan Bannatyne for long enough he does actually start to resemble a dragon.

My festival of misery continued with Breaking Up With the Joneses. It followed Lynne and Stephen Jones in the aftermath of the break-up of their nine-year marriage.

With two young children, Harvey and Oliver, to consider, they pledged at the start of the separation to keep things amicable. Sadly, it dissolved into a bitter custody battle.

Several things bothered me about this programme. First, the film crew drew the children into the dispute by asking them whether they'd prefer to live with Mummy or Daddy. Surely they would be confused enough by what was happening without their every move being filmed?

Also, why did the couple agree to be followed by a documentary crew in the first place?

And what exactly was it that kept me watching?

To top the evening off, I watched The

34-Stone Teenager, part of BBC Three's season of heartbreaking programmes about body image.

In many ways, Bethany, from Lincolnshire, was a typical teenager - she loved shopping for clothes and going out with her friends.

But, for an obviously complex reason that the film didn't investigate too deeply, she was a compulsive over-eater, to the point where she had a body mass index of more than 70. The healthy range is 20-25.

The programme followed her as she had two-thirds of her stomach removed to prevent her from being able to gorge herself.

After all that, it wasn't too surprising I had trouble sleeping.

I'm not going to be too hasty, though. I've just seen a picture of the easy-on-the-eye chap who's playing Robin Hood in the BBC's new series.

At least that should guarantee some sweet daydreams.