Back to the Floor (UK TV series)

Back to the floor
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	5
Production
Producer(s)	BBC
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC
Picture format	4:3
Original release	28 October 1997 – 19 April 2002
Chronology
Related shows	Undercover Boss

Last updated March 12, 2019

Back to the Floor is a reality television series broadcast on BBC2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s in which CEOs or top level managers went undercover in their organisations and took a junior/entry level job in their company. This gave them much to think about during the exercise and learn how their company really works, what the industry is like, and what their employees really think of them.^[1]

Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents supposedly unscripted real-life situations, and often features an otherwise unknown cast of individuals who are typically not professional actors. Reality television exploded as a phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the global success of the series Survivor, Idols, and Big Brother. These shows and a number of others became global franchises, spawning local versions in dozens of countries. The genre has various standard tropes, including "confessionals", or interview segments, used by cast members to express their thoughts, which often double as the shows' narration. In competition-based reality shows, there are other common elements, such as one participant being eliminated per episode, a panel of judges, and the concept of immunity from elimination.

Awards

It won "Best Feature" at the British Academy Television Awards 1999.

The 1999 British Academy Television Awards were held on 9 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London. It was hosted solely by Michael Parkinson, who was due to share hosting duties with Jill Dando until her murder two weeks earlier.

Episodes

Series 1

"Working Holiday" (broadcast 28 October 1997) - Terry Brown of Unijet spends a week as a rep in Tenerife.
"A Class Apart" (broadcast 4 November 1997) - Headmistress Gillian DuCharme teaches in a comprehensive.
"Running Water" (broadcast 11 November 1997) - Bob Baty of South West Water returns to the frontline.
"Drop In Rank" (broadcast 18 November 1997) - General Sir Hew Pike becomes a junior officer in the Army.
"Crawling About" (broadcast 25 November 1997) - Peter Cottee of Terminex works as a pest controller in London.
"Pillow Talk" (broadcast 2 December 1997) - Ann Lloyd becomes an auxiliary nurse.

Tenerife is the largest and most populated island of the seven Canary Islands. It is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 square kilometres (785 sq mi) and 904,713 inhabitants, 43 percent of the total population of the Canary Islands. Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of Macaronesia.

South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Cornwall and Devon and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water was created in 1989 with the privatisation of the water industry. It was originally formed by the Water Act 1973 as one of ten regional water authorities formed by a merger of various statutory and local authority water undertakings. South West Water is part of the Pennon Group.

Lieutenant General Sir Hew William Royston Pike is a retired senior British Army officer known for his service in the Falklands War and for his command in Northern Ireland.

Series 2

"Seeing Red" (broadcast 10 November 1998) - Tony Marshall, MD of Butlins samples life as a redcoat.
"Back on Site" (broadcast 17 November 1998) - Tony Pidgley of Berkeley Group Holdings works as a site manager on his own muti-million pound development.
"Home Truths" (broadcast 24 November 1998) - Heather Rabatts, Chief Executive of Lambeth Council, becomes a housing trainee.
"Top Dog" (broadcast 1 December 1998) - Peter Davies, DG of the RSPCA, works as an inspector in Leeds.
"A Copper's Lot" (broadcast 8 December 1998) - Police chief Paul Whitehouse goes back on the beat.
"Man on the Move" (broadcast 15 December 1998) - Grant Whitaker becomes a mover for Pickfords.

Butlins is a chain of large seaside resorts in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families.

Redcoat is the name given to frontline staff at Butlins holiday camps in the UK. A Redcoat has duties ranging from adult entertainer or children's entertainer to stewarding.

Anthony William Pidgley CBE is an English businessman. He is the founder and chairman of Berkeley Group Holdings, one of the UK's largest housebuilding businesses.

Series 3

"Supermarket swap" (Broadcast 28 October 1999) - Sainsbury's Chief Executive Dino Adriano works as an Assistant Floor Manager.
"Down to earth" (Broadcast 4 November 1999) - Roger Cato becomes a Customer Service Duty Manager at Heathrow airport.
"On the rails" (Broadcast 11 November 1999) - Giles Fearnley, Chief Executive of West Anglia Great Northern works as a platform supervisor.
"Fast food" (Broadcast 18 November 1999) - David Ford of Gardner Marchant trains as a catering Manager.
"The write stuff" (Broadcast 25 November 1999) - David Sullivan, publisher of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport , hustles as a reporter.
"Child's play" (Broadcast 2 December 1999) - The head of PGL looks after 24 children for a week.
"Breaking the mould" (Broadcast 9 December 1999) - Wedgwood's Brian Patterson works on the production line.
"No place like home" (Broadcast 16 December 1999) - David Batts cleans and washes for his own Radisson-Edwardian hotel chain.

Sainsbury's is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 16.9% share of the supermarket sector. Founded in 1869, by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company became the largest retailer of groceries in 1922, was an early adopter of self-service retailing in the United Kingdom, and had its heyday during the 1980s. In 1995, Tesco overtook Sainsbury's to become the market leader, and Asda became the second largest in 2003, demoting Sainsbury's to third place for most of the subsequent period until January 2014, when Sainsbury's regained second place.

West Anglia Great Northern was a train operating company in England owned by National Express, that operated the West Anglia Great Northern franchise from January 1997 until March 2004 and the Great Northern franchise from April 2004 until March 2006.

Sodexo French food services and facilities management company

Sodexo is a French food services and facilities management company headquartered in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. Sodexo is one of the world's largest multinational corporations, with 420,000 employees that represent 130 nationalities and are present on 34,000 sites in 80 countries.

Series 4

"400 weddings and a..." (Broadcast 1 November 2000) - Sandals boss, Steve Garley, spends a week as a wedding co-ordinator in the Caribbean.
"Behind bars" (Broadcast 8 November 2000) - Prison Service Director General, Martin Narey, turns 'screw' at Parkhurst.
"Binman" (Broadcast 15 November 2000) - Tom Riall, MD of the country's biggest waste disposal company, Onyx, spends a week on the bins.
"Musseling in" (Broadcast 22 November 2000) - Belgo boss, Luke Johnson, dishes out the mussels and the frites.
"Working girl" (Broadcast 29 November 2000) - Ann Summers head, Jacqueline Gold, stitches bras and demonstrates sex products.
"Changing homes" (Broadcast 6 December 2000) - Head of Carillion, Britain's biggest building company, Sir Neville Simms spends a week knocking down walls.
"Into the Lion's den" (Broadcast 13 December 2000) - Chairman of Millwall football club, Theo Paphitis, spends a week on the staff at The New Den.
"What's in store" (Broadcast 20 December 2000) - House of Fraser group boss, John Coleman, becomes a sales assistant for a week.

Sandals Resorts is a Jamaican operator of all-inclusive resorts for couples in the Caribbean and part of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), parent company of Sandals Resorts, Beaches Resorts, Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts, Fowl Cay Resort and several private villas. Founded by Jamaican-born Gordon "Butch" Stewart in 1981, SRI is based in Montego Bay, Jamaica and is responsible for resort development, service standards, training and day-to-day operations. Sandals Resorts International has properties throughout the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, The Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Antigua, Turks & Caicos, and most recently Barbados, and Grenada with sixteen Sandals Resorts, three Beaches Resorts, one Grand Pineapple Beach Resort, one Fowl Cay private island resort and four villa properties in Jamaica.

The Caribbean is a region of The Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America.

Sir Martin James Narey DL is an advisor to the British Government, and a former civil servant and charity executive. He served as Director General of the Prison Service of England and Wales between 1998 and 2003, and Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service from 2004 to 2005. He was as Chief Executive Officer of the charity Barnardo's from 2005 to 2011. In 2013 he was appointed as a special advisor to the education secretary Michael Gove.

Series 5

"Cruising" (Broadcast 30 October 2001) - American multimillionaire Bob Dickinson, president of Carnival Cruise Lines, goes back to work on one of his own liners.
"Burger king" (Broadcast 6 November 2001) - French businessman Eric Bonnot, head of the Burger King fast-food chain in the UK, swaps the boardroom for a week's work behind the counter at the Liverpool branch.
"Hovis" (Broadcast 1 November 2001) - Peter Baker, MD of British Bakeries, swaps the boardroom for a week of putting crosses on hot-cross buns, scooping up litres of garlic butter with his hands, and chanting business Mantras in his Newcastle upon Tyne bakery.
"Central park" (Broadcast 20 November 2001) - Just ten days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Dr. Regina Peruggi, president of the New York Central Park Conservancy, leaves her Fifth Avenue office to work as a gardener in Central Park, where duties include cleaning dog mess and cleaning up after drug addicts.
"Ambulance" (Broadcast 27 November 2001) - Adrian Lucas, Chief Executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service, returns to the streets of Glasgow as a member of the ambulance crew.
"Women's prison USA" (Broadcast 4 December 2001) - John Ferguson, head of the world's largest private prison firm, heads for New Mexico as he works for a week a guard at one of his organisation's own women's prisons.
"Dating agency" (Broadcast 18 December 2001) - As head of the UK's largest dating agency, Louise Hansen's job is to make profits from lonely hearts.
"Hoover" (Broadcast 19 April 2002) - Despite making the world's most famous vacuum cleaners, the Hoover factory near Glasgow is fighting for its future.

Related Research Articles

The chief executive officer (CEO), or just chief executive (CE), is the most senior corporate, executive, or administrative officer in charge of managing an organization – especially an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution. CEOs lead a range of organizations, including public and private corporations, non-profit organizations and even some government organizations. The CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the entity, which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenues, or another element. In the non-profit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, such as reducing poverty, increasing literacy, etc.

Barry Charles Diller is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group and created the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller is a member of the Television Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1994.

Jackie McNamara is a Scottish football coach and executive, and former professional player. He is a former Scotland international, who filled a variety of defensive roles in his playing career.

Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999.

Antony Root is a British television executive and producer.

Lorraine Broderick is an American television soap opera writer. She got her start on All My Children as a protégée of the show's creator, Agnes Nixon. She went on to serve four different stints as its Head Writer, ultimately earning her four Daytime Emmy awards in that capacity. Broderick's work on the show has often been met with critical acclaim, citing her as its finest head writer outside of Nixon. She was the last head writer of All My Children's 40-year broadcast run on ABC, penning the show through its network finale on September 23, 2011.

This list brings together authority figures—people who hold on-screen power—in professional wrestling promotions or brands within North America. The North American wrestling industry portrays authority figures as responsible for making matches, providing rules and generally keeping law and order both in and outside the ring. The role can vary according to disposition as a face authority figure tends to give what the fans want and does what is fair while a heel authority figures tend to run their shows out of their own self-interest.

Charles Lamb Allen, Baron Allen of Kensington, is a British businessman and broadcaster, and the chairman of Global Radio, 2 Sisters Food Group, ISS and Advisory chairman at Moelis & Company. Lord Allen was chief executive of Granada Group from 1996 to 2000, executive chairman of Granada Media plc from 2000 to 2004, chief executive of ITV plc from its formation in 2004 until 2007, and chairman of the music company EMI. He was chairman of Endemol, a non-executive director of Tesco plc and Virgin Media. In March 2012, he was appointed by Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, to the position of chairman of the executive board of the party. He has been chairman of the British Red Cross.

Gerard Joseph Britton is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a striker. He is currently the chief executive of Partick Thistle, who he previously played for and managed.

Colin Murphy is a former football player and manager who has taken charge of numerous clubs during a long management career, including Derby County, Lincoln City, Stockport County, Al Ittihad, Southend United, Shelbourne, Notts County, Cork City, the Vietnam national side and Burmese national side.

Fossetts Farm Stadium is the provisional name for a stadium proposed to be built in Southend-on-Sea as a new home for Southend United F.C. to replace Roots Hall Stadium. The name may change if sponsorship for the stadium is secured. Planning permission was confirmed in 2008, but the scheme depends on financing from an adjacent retail development, and it is not known if or when this will become commercially viable.

Carl Brian Griffiths is an English-born Welsh former footballer and manager.

The Apprentice was an American reality television program that judges the business skills of a group of contestants. It has run in various formats across fifteen seasons since January 2004 on NBC.

Sharon Kendrick is a popular British writer of over 100 romance novels published by Mills & Boon since 1993. Her books regularly top the sales charts for romance fiction on both sides of the Atlantic.

Peter Hetherston is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Richard Graham Leibovitch is a Canadian-American finance and real estate expert who is currently the Managing Partner of Arel Capital, a private equity real estate firm based in New York City. Prior to this, he was the Chief Investment Officer and Senior Managing Director of Gottex Fund Management, a fund-of-fund based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Undercover Boss is a British reality television series. Each episode depicts a person who has a high management position at a major business, deciding to become undercover as an entry-level employee to discover the faults in the company. The first series, consisting of two episodes was aired in 2009 followed by a second series consisting of six episodes one year later. This original series sparked the Undercover Boss franchise. Localised versions of the show format are currently being produced in the United States, France, Australia, Germany and Canada.

Beth Elaine Mooney is an American financial executive who is the first woman to be CEO of a top-20 U.S. bank. On May 1, 2011 KeyCorp named Mooney its chairman and chief executive officer of the Cleveland, Ohio-based bank. From November 2010 until May 1, 2011 she was the president and the chief operating officer at KeyCorp.

Sergio Rodriguez Bucher is a dual-nationality Spanish/Swiss businessman. He became the chief executive of Debenhams in October 2016, succeeding Michael Sharp.

References

↑ http://digiguide.tv/programme/Documentary/Back-to-the-Floor/7067/

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] ttp://digiguide.tv/programme/Documentary/Back-to-the-Floor/7067/