Ladette to Lady on Nine Network/ITV1
The Australian Take on the Self-improvement Etiquette Series
Jun 2, 2009
Self help is the name of the game for Ladette To Lady whether or not the participants pretend to want it. On this show etiquette experts take a gaggle of “ladettes” – meaning bawdy women who can drink and swear most men under the table – and turn them into self respecting ladies. The difference this series is that instead of the usual Essex girls the group have travelled all the way from Australia to seek a touch of class.
Essentially it’s an Antipodean spin-off from the, now cancelled, British “reality” series including the same location and staff, namely Eggleston Hall and a team lead by highly strung finishing school teacher Gill Harbord.
Trouble as the Plane Lands
This is a programme that thrives on controversy and it certainly achieved that within the first three minutes as the women are detained at the airport by police after their disruptive behaviour on board a flight. The antics even reached the newspapers the next day, much to the annoyance of Harbord.
But the ever present contradiction of modern reality rears its ugly head from the off as some of the scenes appear so horribly staged, most notably the reactions of the teaching staff. How can you have the girls apparently breaking into the kitchen to steal alcohol when there’s a camera crew right there to film the entire thing? It’s so hard to relax with such a TV show when these inconsistencies scream out at every turn.
The problems begin with the title itself as "ladette" one of those horrible made-up flash words that are peppered about the meeja these days, such as “metrosexual” or “MPs expenses claims”, and is horribly tacky. The show’s concept also reinforces the tired old stereotype that all women should be prim and proper instead of being individuals, and exist merely to marry upper class twits. In fact anything that uses the phrase “ruling class” without any irony should be shot down on site. There's a thesis in this somewhere but it's neither the time nor the place.
The Women Host a Cocktail Party for “inbred tossers”
The task for the initial week was for the team to learn basic social skills and within a couple of days host a cocktail party for eligible bachelors (read: toffee-nosed, single, rich sods). It doesn’t matter who said what or the rundown of events as very little of it is worth noting, although Sarah’s opinion of one man being an “inbred tosser” raised a titter. In the end surprisingly it was waitress Maria who as sent home, or expelled, for acting too much despite Skye’s disorderly nature.
As for the women themselves it’s hard to really care as none of them are in the tiniest bit likeable and come across as the worst type of attention seekers. This may change as the episodes progress but that seems like a lot of effort to find out. Even the teachers do themselves no favours by coming across as unbelievably uptight, especially scary vice-principal and cook Rosemary Shrager whose approach to discipline is to shout and shout louder.
Ladette To Lady is no Bad Lads Army
But the biggest fault is that it’s not interesting in the slightest. After an hour of this it’s obvious to see just why Ladette To Lady was cancelled in the first place. It’s no Bad Lads Army that’s for sure – which can be considered the male equivalent – as that at least has a particular purpose in solid rehabilitation and is compelling viewing. Another series of that wouldn’t go amiss instead. Please?
Ladette To Lady is shown on ITV1 every Tuesday at 9pm.
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