SO there I was, on my merry way through the Eden shopping centre on Saturday afternoon, only to find my path barred by hordes of screaming people.

‘Who could they be waiting for?’, I wondered. Royalty?

A legend of the silver screen? The Beatles reunited from beyond the grave?

Or perhaps a Stephen Hawking-style scientific mind which has made us look at the world in an entirely different way?

No, actually, it was Peter Andre, signing bottles of perfume. Aside from pop tunes he is also known as being the ex-husband of Jordan.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure he is a perfectly nice chap and he certainly seemed to make a huge effort to please his adoring fans.

But a bigger question is why do any of us even care enough in the first place, to queue for hours on end for a mere glimpse of stars? In this age of celebrities clogging up our TV screens on the X-Factor and any number of other talent shows, this seems sadly par for the course.

It’s a depressing fact, but it seems incredible achievements in medicine or art aren’t necessary to qualify for adulation anymore – all you need is to appear on the telly.