Cheeky Ben is hoping to become a Notting Hill star
This isn’t your usual press launch. We’ve knocked on the door of a shabby-genteel flat in Notting Hill’s bohemian Powis Gardens and now we’re chatting over intimate family business with its friendly occupants.
Susanne Guyler, an actress-turned-vintage clothing consultant is hoping that her son Ben, an estate agent apparently on a mission to nail every female in London, 27, will settle down with the “girl next door”, who also happens to be perched on the sofa.
This is one of the “storylines” that will be played out in Seven Days, Channel 4’s ambitious new reality show, which aims to create an authentic soap opera out of the day-to-day lives of everyday Notting Hill folk.
During our day on the “set” of Seven Days, (essentially the bustling area around Portobello Road) we meet a selection of the 30 characters who have agreed to let the cameras into their lives for the next seven weeks – and possibly beyond.
There’s John Lee, a longstanding Portobello hairsalon owner, struggling to pay his rent and railing against the arrivistes who have destroyed Notting Hill’s once classless social fabric.
Around the corner Ricky the chatty florist is gossiping about delivering sprays to David Cameron and Lily Allen. In Mike’s Café, Moktar, an 18 year-old law student, tells us that he wants to challenge the misconception that any Muslim with a beard is a terrorist.
It Girl Laura Zilli, chef Aldo’s daughter, is plugging her party-going career in the Electric Cinema.
It’s a good job we’re meeting the real Notting Hill subjects because a screening at the Electric revealed that not a single inch of footage is in the can for Wednesday’s opening episode. For a show tipped to fill the void of Big Brother, that’s a big risk.
Simon Dickson, Channel 4′s deputy head of documentaries, said: “Nobody’s ever done anything like this before. There’s absolutely no guarantee that it’s going to work but it’s going to be an adventure. It’s a new kind of reality, what happens when you take the walls down. This is the biggest reality set in the history of television.”
Because Seven Days is broadcast just once a week, the producers are encouraging the public to interact with the characters online, through its ChatNav social network, allowing real outside events to influence the show.
Although some have complained that Notting Hill is a predictable venue for TV’s metropolitan elite to choose, the neighbourhood still retains enough of a mix of bankers, street traders and deluded trustafarians to make for compelling television.
The participants will also be encouraged to discuss the week’s news events – the Pope’s visit, footballers’ indiscretions – another advance from Big Brother’s narcissism.
Stephen Lambert, the producer who was the creative force behind Wife Swap and Faking It, encourages comparisons with Coronation Street and EastEnders.
He said: “We have up to 30 characters, like in a soap, and each episode will focus on the six or so which are most interesting that particular week.” Like EastEnders, the series could continue indefinitely, if viewers like it, with characters arriving and leaving.
Are the stars of Notting Hill ready for imminent fame? Ben is a previous Big Brother auditionee and welcomes the spotlight. Susanne says she found Big Brother degrading but trusts the producers, who are sitting in on our sofa chat. They have promised her they are not looking for sensationalism.
That might seem a little naïve – the one blemish in Lambert’s career is the mis-representative editing of footage of the Queen “storming out” that cost the head of BBC One his job. A celebrity PR company will help the participants handle media interest and no doubt steer the tabloids towards any juicy storylines.
But Dickson and Lambert are excited about the chance to rejuvenate “reality TV” through a show closer to the genre’s groundbreaking roots in observational documentary. Didactic voiceovers are out. “We think this programme could be a gamechanger,” says Dickson.
Three crews of two cameras will follow the characters throughout the week, filming the most significant aspects of their lives with the footage edited at short notice on Tuesdays to air the next night.
Can a reality TV show prove a both a critical and ratings success without the traditional complaints from participants about not recognising narratives that were constructed via imaginative editing? It should be worth taking a tour of Notting Hill on Wednesday nights to find out.
Seven Days begins on September 22 at 10pm on Channel 4.
lacking loads of the true notting hill. no irish, spanish or portuguese community. nothing regarding people on the market who have spent their entire lives living in the area. nothing regarding the mangrove, ebony steel band, etc etc