I’D always thought the phrase “keeping it real” a bit over the top, a bit too American.

That’s changed more recently as it seems to hit the spot when it comes to sorting the genuine from the phony because there does seem to have been a slight sea-change in what people now perceive as “real.”

While sorting out fake news from the genuine article, quite literally, on social media like Facebook still tests the intelligence and perceptions, elsewhere there are positive signs of normality in life.

Although it may sound a bit mean, the fact that Victoria Beckham has ditched the YouTube channel that shows off her very posh lifestyle is actually quite heartening in general.

It was apparently only bringing in £25 a day and, as the whole idea of revealing your daily existence to a waiting public appears to be about making money, it seems to have failed.

Victoria wanted to “show the real me” but, like most supposed “real-life” series, it was no doubt very stage managed. In fact, only a largely manufactured version of lives like this are ever offered to the public. It’s not a documentary in the true sense, just a “snapshot” of celebrity lives but possibly still enjoyable.

However, the public is generally waking up to the fact that these are not warts and all looks at anyone’s life, really. At the recent Emmy Awards, sisters Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner added more glamour to the event when they presented an award.

However, before doing this, Kim gave a little speech: “Our family knows first-hand how truly compelling television comes from real people just being themselves. Telling their stories, unfiltered and unscripted.”

The crowd erupted into laughter at the very idea of calling her family “real people” with the predictable Twitter reaction afterwards.

When it comes to TV, the only proper real-life coverage is of cameras following a police force or helicopter medics on incidents happening in the real world. This is not a sanitised version to make individuals look good, sell products or simply increase their commercial profile. This is life as it’s lived, recorded to show something genuine.

If you needed real people locally you could have come along to Blackrod County Primary School last weekend when an Eco-Fair was held, organised by a local woman and free to both the public and stall-holders.

Here were individuals who simply cared about the environment, about the planet, and were doing their best to find ways to change life in a positive way. They were creating environmentally-friendly products, selling Third World goods, finding ways to save books from landfill, recycling clothes and offering a wealth of information that anyone could employ to do their bit to improve life, now and in the future.

There were a couple of ethical businesses but the commercial agenda was low-key. The bigger picture was about doing something for others and how we can help ourselves. They were definitely “keeping it real”.