Like the title, nudge nudge. This was an hour-long programme we caught last night on BBC's 'yoof' channel, BBC3. Two members of the chav class were featured, one beautiful and one a lump of a girl who both shared a common love of staying in bed all day and sponging off their relations. Neither had ever bothered to work: 'Don't wanna, 's boring, I can get money anyway innit?' Don't mention the 'B' word.
At vast effort the BBC arranged a week's internship for each girl with a top female fashion executive. As the programme pointed out, thousands of girls would have sold their souls for such an opportunity. Of course, our chavettes simply moaned, slept-in and generally acted sullen in the salons.
And then a miracle occurs! After days of being the centre of attention, the subject of intense and personal hands-on coaching from their CEO role-models, the girls perk up and show some enthusiasm. Result!
As the credits roll, we're told that the big girl has enrolled on a care assistant course while the pretty one is actively looking for a job (presumably hoping her conviction for assaulting a police officer will now be overlooked).
Wonderful life-affirming TV!
As another two girls will be featured next week, the BBC clearly has a Toyota-scale conveyor belt going on here. What we will never be told is how many girls fell off it and only made it to the cutting room floor. My guess? Around 80% of the candidates swore, fought and never turned up for their placement.
The BBC has a wonderful liberal conviction that every lost soul is capable of redemption, transformable into a thoroughly sound, tax-paying, 40-hour-working, responsible member of society. Who could disagree with the intention, but it's still old-time religion. If someone really is stupid, impulsive, lacking in conscientiousness, aggressive and selfish then their alignment to the BBC ideal-citizen model is always going to be slight.
I want to know what will be the fate, one year out, of the pretty one and the fat one.
