What your favourite TV show says about you

"You've got 30 minutes left," boom the masters of Masterchef. "Thirty-five coachloads of Bulgarian cheerleaders and their North Korean psychiatrists will be coming through the doors any minute now, expecting a piping hot plate of coq-au-vin on a bed of Transylvanian cabbage, followed by passion fruit, star anise and blueberry muffin, done three ways. And they've all got nut allergies."

Cooking certainly doesn't get more ridiculous than this. But the latest cliche-ridden series, which ended last week, was another stellar ratings success, and the next celebrity version is already being prepped.

Tomorrow, the British Academy TV awards will be handed out at a glittering back-slapping event in London, and while the aforementioned cookery show is somewhat surprisingly missing from the audience-chosen shortlist, there are plenty of other so-called 'reality' shows there which revel in placing people in peril, including Masterchef's latest kitchen rival The Great British Bake-Off, plus Strictly Come Dancing, I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here, and inexplicably, even the much-panned Made In Chelsea.

No wonder psychotherapists are finding rich pickings as they turn their attention to what exactly makes a TV series so important to us these days.

They tell us that sitting down to watch an entertaining show which delves into issues relevant to our lives is a non-threatening way of encouraging us to start getting to grips with our own problems.

This is clearly regardless of how far-fetched and manipulated it may actually be, or the vacuum it is creating between how we think people live these days.

So let's play amateur shrink, and take a look at what some of our other favourite telly shows say about us, starting with another show on tomorrow's Bafta shortlist:

Let's say you love American crime thriller Homeland. Why would that be? Perhaps you feel life is a juggling act. You don't need to be bipolar to identify with Claire Danes' character. She stands for everyone who feels they're not managing to have a normal life, or coping.

Then there's Downton Abbey. Its viewers probably crave reassurance. Loving Downton could reflect a desire to return to the good old days of Britain, which boosts the mood and patriotic fervour, but it's the tear-jerking moments that have real value, giving us a sense of release without personal trauma.

Fans of Britain's Got Talent root for the underdog. The ability to be surprised, thrilled, appalled or shocked is higher on this show than any other reality TV series. That's why it gets far more re-views on YouTube than any other UK talent show.

Strictly Come Dancing is also up for a Bafta tomorrow. It trounced Mr Cowell's X-Factor in the ratings last year, and its fans would be doubtless classed as traditionalists.They shy away from modern trends, and must be darned tolerant too – how else would they sit through Bruce Forsyth's procession of dreadful gags?

Last, but by no means least, are the soaps, the most watched programmes on British telly.

Why do we tune in religiously – even when knowing the storylines in advance? Because they are comfort blankets. And their storylines are always so miserable, it reminds us that our own daily struggles could be much, much worse!