Blood, Sweat And Luxuries: Episode 1

Clearly the fevered retort of a producer whose childhood was spent being told 'you don't know how lucky you are', the Blood, Sweat And... strand returns to BBC Three, this time examining the origin point of those things that, according to the film, we might once have called luxuries, but now demand as essentials.

We're talking iPhones, trainers, and, in the case of this opening episode, sapphires (yes, we think that's still regarded as a luxury, too). Six Brit youngsters are sent out to see how the other half lives, and while these kids are clearly somewhat spoilt and comfortable, and have no real concept of what the 'real world' is, they're actually pleasant enough kids, and in any case, being sent down a mine for six hours a day is not what a lot of us would refer to as the real world, either.

That said, the kids are given enough rope to if not actually hang themselves, then certainly trip themselves up and look a bit stupid: Oscar loses points with his childhood story ('we had nothing... well, we didn't have nothing: we had a yacht'), while Alex, defeated by her first day of digging, is told she can sit to one side and watch everyone else sweat. She doesn't pick up on the sarcasm, and accepts the offer immediately.

As the programme intends, this is a slap in the face for the youths and also for us, and goes some way to heightening our awareness of where our comfortable lifestyle originates from (and an awareness of how low down perceived comfort can start: one host family only has a toilet because they've built it specially for their visitors). In this fashion, if it makes at least one viewer second guess their high street fashions and consider being the next Mark Thomas, then its jobs is done, and as such is certainly the sort of programming BBC Three should be investing in more.



Airs at 9pm on Tuesday 20th April 2010 on BBC Three.

Written by Andrew Allen.