Tower Block of Commons | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Directed by | Joanna Burge |
Narrated by | Mark Bazeley |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 4 |
Production | |
Production location | United Kingdom |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | Love Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Channel 4 |
Release | 1 February – 22 February 2010 |
Tower Block of Commons is a British four-episode reality documentary show produced by Love Productions and broadcast on Channel 4 in 2010 where four Members of Parliament (MPs) have to spend time living in a variety of deprived housing estates around Britain. [1] The four MPs who participated were Austin Mitchell (Labour), Mark Oaten (Liberal Democrat), Tim Loughton and Nadine Dorries (both Conservative). In the first episode, Iain Duncan Smith appears but Dorries appears in his place for the remainder of the three episodes. [2] Duncan Smith's exit from the show followed his wife being diagnosed with cancer. [3]
During the series, Mark Oaten lives in Goresbrook Village estate in Barking, Tim Loughton spends time in the Newton estate in Birmingham, Austin Mitchell and his wife visit the Orchard Park estate in Hull, and Iain Duncan Smith visits the Carpenters estate in Stratford. [2]
In the second episode, having replaced Iain Duncan Smith, Nadine Dorries moves into the South Acton estate in west London. [4]
Upon Oaten entering the estate, he is confronted with homophobic abuse from youths. [5]
After the show was recorded, Loughton said of the experience:
Oaten expressed similar concerns:
Austin Mitchell said after the programme aired that he regretted participating: "I should have turned them down". He said that the production company produced a programme that was a "cynical distraction" from the premise he was initially approached about, which was more specifically to show the plight of council house residents. A spokesman for Love Productions responded to Mitchell's comments: "We certainly did not set out to humiliate the MPs taking part and we don't believe the end result does so." [8]
Nadine Dorries was later revealed to have cheated by keeping a £50 note in her bra. She claimed that she would use the money to buy gifts for the children of her single mother hosts. [9]
Grace Dent wrote in The Guardian that the show "is absorbing and maddening in equal portions. Part MP rehabilitation show, part class war porn for angry, uppity sorts such as myself". She was particularly biting towards Austin Mitchell's wife Linda: "she gives herself enough rope to hang herself almost every half hour". [5]
Nancy Banks-Smith, also writing in The Guardian, said the programme was "a tribute to the backbone of the residents, and a jolly good joke at MPs' expense". [3]
In The Independent , Robert Epstein praised Tim Loughton and Mark Oaten's performance, noting that "get on with the job, actually learning something from their hosts; Oaten even goes so far as to get a petition going to have the mould-ravaged tower block knocked down. But it's clear that neither is entirely comfortable in their new homes". [10]
Kevin Maguire wrote in the Daily Mirror that the programme showed "snobbery" on the part of the Channel 4 executives who approved the show and described the participating politicians as "publicity-seeking" and "fools". He poured particular scorn on Oaten, saying his participation is no surprise: "the MP for Rent Boy Central treats TV as therapy". [11]
Nathan Bevan in Wales on Sunday said that watching Tim Loughton "doing his best "dad dancing" while trying to boogie to General Levy down the dancehall with the puffa-jacketed B19 posse was a hoot", but that Austin Mitchell's refusal to participate fully showed that he "seemed to exhibit only the faintest of grasps on reality". [12]
In May 2022 Nadine Dorries, by this time Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport claimed that some of the people who had appeared alongside her were actors. This allegation was perceived as being particularly serious as Dorries's Department was due to make a decision on whether to privatise Channel 4. Reviews by Channel 4 and the production company found no evidence to substantiate the allegations. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of MPs investigated the matter and concluded that the claims by Dorries were groundless. [13]
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith, often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Chingford and Woodford Green, formerly Chingford, since 1992.
George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham,, known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, having represented Ealing Acton from 1974 to 1997 and North West Hampshire from 1997. He has served in Cabinet on three occasions: as Secretary of State for Transport from 1995 to 1997; as the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal from 2010 to 2012; and as Conservative Chief Whip from 2012 to 2014.
Timothy Eric Boswell, Baron Boswell of Aynho is a British politician who was the Conservative MP for Daventry from 1987 until he stood down at the 2010 general election, after which he was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer.
Austin Vernon Mitchell was a British academic, journalist and Labour Party politician who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby from a 1977 by-election to 2015. He was also the chair of the Labour Euro-Safeguards Campaign. Before becoming an MP in the United Kingdom, Austin Mitchell was a well known television broadcaster in New Zealand.
Mark Oaten is a British politician who was a senior member of the Liberal Democrats. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester from 1997 to 2010.
Timothy Paul Loughton, is a British politician and former banker who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham from 1997 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from 2010 to 2012 and has twice served as the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2016 and 2021, following the respective resignations of Keith Vaz and Yvette Cooper.
Mid Bedfordshire is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Blake Stephenson of the Conservative Party since the 2024 United Kingdom general election.
Nadine Vanessa Dorries is a British author and a former politician who served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2021 to 2022. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire from 2005 to 2023 for the Conservative Party.
Barry Charles Legg is a British politician. A former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Milton Keynes South West from 1992 until the 1997 general election, he was defeated by Labour's Phyllis Starkey. Legg is the chairman of the Eurosceptic Bruges Group.
In the 2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election, Sir Menzies Campbell was elected to succeed Charles Kennedy as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom.
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is a British parliamentary group affiliated to the Conservative Party, which is dedicated to strengthening business, cultural and political ties between the United Kingdom and Israel, as well as between the British Conservative Party and the Israeli Likud party.
John MacKenzie Nicolson is a Scottish journalist, broadcaster and Scottish National Party (SNP) politician.
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! returned for its twelfth series on 11 November 2012 and finished on 1 December 2012. Ant & Dec returned as main hosts, with Laura Whitmore and Joe Swash returning as hosts of spin-off show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!. On 16 June 2012, it was announced that Russell Kane would be leaving Get Me Out of Here! NOW!. He has been replaced by comedian Rob Beckett.
Emma Dent Coad is a British architectural historian and politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kensington from 2017 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, she has been a member of Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council since 2006. She resigned her Labour membership on 27 April 2023, but remains on the local council as an independent.
Iain Duncan Smith served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2010 to 2016. A member and previous leader of the Conservative Party, Duncan Smith was appointed to the cabinet by Prime Minister David Cameron following the 2010 general election and the formation of the coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. He was reappointed after the Conservatives won a majority in the 2015 general election but resigned in March 2016 in opposition to disability benefit cuts.
Festus Akinbusoye is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2021 to 2024. He was the first black Briton to serve as a Police and Crime Commissioner.
Talk is an opinion-orientated streaming service launched on 25 April 2022, owned and operated by News UK. The channel initially broadcast on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and was available via the Internet on YouTube, later deciding in the face of poor viewer ratings to become available as an internet-only service from 1 May 2024.
A by-election took place on 19 October 2023 in the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Mid Bedfordshire. It took place on the same day as the 2023 Tamworth by-election.