Rich, Famous and Jobless, Tuesday 9pm, BBC One

Posted by Stewart Turner

Rich, Famous and Jobless © BBC

Another week, another attempt to squeeze a bunch of washed-up celebrities into the scuffed-up size nines of the common man. At the last count there were just shy of two-and-a-half million people who could’ve been asked to give us an insight into what it’s like to be out of work. Instead, the Beeb decided to enlist Larry Lamb, Meg Mathews, Emma Parker Bowles and Diarmuid Gavin to show us what it’s really like.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that they weren’t actually jobless at all since they were picking up a cheque for making a painfully bad TV documentary, the gruesome foursome were stripped of their cash and stuffed into some of Primark’s finest before being sent out to various downtrodden towns to look for work.

TV gardener Diarmuid did a sterling job in showing us how not to look for a job, skulking around the streets of Hackney eating bananas while telling strangers that he “needs some work to live” in the manner of a man who’s about to be committed, while Larry took time out from his big EastEnders storyline to stroll along Hartlepool beach, dine on canned tuna and sign autographs in Asda.

Emma, barely a celebrity by any stretch of the imagination unless you count having a famous aunt, dropped off a phoney CV to a Wolverhampton fried chicken shop – who were clearly unimpressed by her impeccable A Level results – before facing what looked like a few hours of a pub landlord “accidentally” brushing past her while serving up shandies. Meg, meanwhile, did a couple of days’ work on a cake stall – a doddle after putting up with Noel Gallagher for a few years.

Of course, Rich, Famous and Jobless being all about unemployment, we had plenty of sweeping shots of tower blocks set to a Radiohead soundtrack and each participant had at least a couple of weepy moments. But in the end, it taught us nothing. All in all, it was possibly the most unnecessary and offensive piece of TV so far this year. BBC take note – we don’t need two-bit celebrities to experience unemployment for us – we’re doing it ourselves.

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