The Duchess on the Estate, ITV1
Sarah Ferguson aims to Restore Community Spirit in Manchester
Aug 19, 2009
Sarah Ferguson, AKA Duchess of York, has been involved in many charitable works due to her high profile of once being married to one of The Queen’s sons, not to mention her infamous tabloid exploits during the 90s. This new two-part documentary follows the wonderful Duchess as she rides into a deprived area, Northern Moor in Manchester, and saves everybody with her words of wisdom. Or something like that.
Fergie in Northern Moor
The extent of her research, as it was shown in the The Duchess on the Estate, consisted of looking at a video on YouTube of a group messing about with cars and guns but that’s hardly representative of anything. Plus it’s another excuse to talk about so-called “broken Britain”, an increasingly annoying phrase that can only do well by exiting the public lexicon very swiftly, about an area ruined by drugs and crime.
The central case study is about parent Dawn who is worried about her children and wants them to grow up in a nice community. She was the main guide around the estate. While walking about Fergie and her camera crew talked to a group of young guys but she was hardly inspirational in fact she looked very nervous, which is somewhat forgivable given the circumstances and the fact that one of them was downing a bottle of lager.
She spent 10 days staying there but there was no real sense of that amount time passing, apart from a handful of visits and a chin wag with some of the locals not a lot really happened. It also skimmed over many of the scenes such as showing that most of the local shops are closed though never really explaining why this is. Ultimately The Duchess on the Estate wasn’t interesting in it’s own right.
Outrage Caused by The Duchess on the Estate
It’s basically The Secret Millionaire without the mystery and far more self-promotion. The programme made an issue of the Duchess referring to herself Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York or several other permutations. Although the best moment was the look on Dawn’s son’s face when Fergie explained who he was, then when she left the room he went back to playing on his Xbox completely unfazed by the experience.
Before broadcast the programme was already making headlines as residents were angered at the negative portrayal of their home as an example of “broken Britain”. Of course complaining about a TV show that has yet to air is a reductive attitude and ITV stated that the show was a representation of the estate at the time of filming.
Yet the distortion of facts is typical of documentary makers who delve into a project with an agenda and clump a series of clips together during the edit. If that’s what has happened in this case then shame on them as it simply adds to the problem of deprived neighbourhoods being presented in the media as hotbeds of crime.
Will Sarah Ferguson bring Community Spirit to Northern Moor
At no point during the first episode does anyone really have anything positive to say, which given the furore that has followed in the press seems a little odd. Also the last thing the average working class chap wants is an upper class twit popping down their street to deal out lashings of patronisation and finger wagging about their lifestyle.
Her solution was inspired by a community centre scheme in Blackpool with the belief that “every kid needs a chance” and decided to bring a similar idea to Northern Moor.
In all honestly though they could have got anyone to front this show, but was someone who “has little experience of life on a council estate” the best choice? Maybe not but there’s still another part to come and for the viewers to see if the project succeeds in raising “community spirit”. Given the build up and nature of such programmes it probably does.
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