Brave move to shed light on homeless (From Daily Echo)
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Brave move to shed light on homeless
4:13pm Friday 26th June 2009
By Lorelei Reddin »
REALITY television has its ups and downs.
Quite often the low spots are really dire and complete dross, but I applaud the BBC for their latest effort – a kind of real-life documentary with celebrities.
In Famous, Rich and Homeless, former tennis star Annabel Croft, The One Show’s Hardeep Singh Kohli, journalist and writer Rosie Boycott, former Coronation Street actor Bruce Jones and the Marquis of Blandford put homelessness in the spotlight.
They swap their lavish lifestyles for sleeping rough, soup runs and hostels after being dumped on the streets of London.
Of course, there’s a field in Somerset currently filled with celebrities camping out in a sleeping bag for the fun of it. But this was no Glastonbury Festival.
It was a stark lesson in life in which we saw the participants ignored, abused and, worst of all, fear for their lives.
Other than the future Duke of Marlborough who stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights before swanning off back to Blenheim Palace, these minor celebrities showed remarkably good humour and grace and have taught us all a lesson.
Their guides around the mean streets are the real heroes of course.
This was a surprisingly moving, brave piece of television.
Catch it on the BBC’s Internet iPlayer if you missed it.
Brave move to shed light on homeless
