Trust Me, I’m a Teenager
Channel 4 from May 13, 9-10pm <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" >
Is there a giant Rolodex somewhere that programme makers turn to when hunting down truly weird families for the latest reality TV wheeze? You can imagine the entries listed under S,for Swears like a trooper; N, for Neurotic as hell; O, for Obsessional or what?; and W, for Wow, what a loser!
Some of them turned up in Wife Swap earlier this year. Here come some more in Trust Me, I’m A Teenager, a three-part series from Channel 4, to be screened from May 13, in which panels of teenage mentors try to improve the internal dynamics of three London families with teenagers - and problems.
Except that these families would be filed under B for Ballsy as anything, because it takes real courage to turn over a fortnight of your life to a trio of unknown, untrained youngsters.
First up are the well-heeled Nevilles, from Hampstead, north London: company director Dad, bossy motor-mouth Mum, and children aged 12, 14, and 17. The Nevilles’ family dynamic consists mainly of shouting. The mentors, two girls and a boy all aged 16, brand Simon, the eldest, arrogant and lazy for the way he hogs the sofa and swears at Mum, and Georgia as a moody teenager who should stop whingeing. Everyone, they say, should listen more to the youngest, Jacob.
Read the full story in this week’s TES Friday magazine
