NOW before I start this column, I would like to place on record my love for X Factor .

I am in no way among those who consider themselves too good to watch it.

I know there are many who despise X Factor, but for me and about 13 million other people it’s very watchable Saturday night television.

This week, however, I found myself actually reaching for the remote control.

The reason? I found parts of Saturday’s episode far too uncomfortable to watch.

It started with Joseph Whelan, a 26- year-old tool salesman from Wolverhampton who appeared with his four-year-old son Kian.

Kian’s starring role began before his dad had even stepped foot on the stage.

“Are you looking forward to your dad’s audition?” asked the presenter, to which Kian looked excruciatingly shy, squirmed around in his gran’s lap, hid his face behind his arms and whispered ‘yes’.

Now don’t get me wrong Kian clearly loved his dad, but he was not loving his role in the spotlight.

To be honest I rather suspect he’d gone along as a supporter rather than a performer, but that wasn’t going to stop the X Factor producers.

Just minutes after his dad’s showstopping performance had earned him four ‘yeses’ Kian appeared on the stage, stumbling into the spotlight in front of several thousand people (quite probably because someone in the wings had just given him a gentle shove towards his now weeping father).

As Kian buried his face into dad’s shoulder, I felt for him, but it was nothing to the pain I would feel for two teenage children whose mother Alison Brunton was up next.

Single-mum Alison compared herself to Madonna, but failed to mention that she couldn’t sing. A fact I suspect her children were aware of.

“You want to be anywhere else rather than here don’t you,” chirped Dermot O'Leary, helpfully in the wings. Their faces said it all. They looked liked they wanted the floor to open up and swallow them, but that didn’t stop the producers cutting to these two children seven times during their mum’s excruciatingly bad oneminute rendition of Lady GaGa’s Edge of Glory while the crowd booed and wolf-whistled.

To watch several thousand people mock your mother must be among the worst experiences in the world, but to do it with a TV camera in your face and millions watching is unimaginable.

As I sat and watched this seemingly quiet, shy teenager bite her lip, stare at the floor, her brother, the ceiling – anywhere but down the camera – and blink away the tears, I’m sorry X Factor but my love for you waned.