It’s a fiery swap as housewife Tina Griffiths from Basingstoke and Labour party councillor Julie Young from Colchester trade places for 10 days. Julie Young and her teetotal husband Tim are both Labour party councillors, which means politics is top of the family agenda. As a socialist couple they spend more of their time helping others than spending time with their family. Young family life is constantly interrupted by their constituents who need their help, which means the needs of 10-year-old Kier, 14-year-old Matilda and 16-year-old Harriet often end up coming second. Read more & comment »

It’s an explosive Wife Swap this week as Alison from Eastbourne and Michelle from Northampton trade places – and parenting styles. Alison Henry has one priority in life: her five children. She cooks, cleans and runs around after them all day, every day. Alison believes her role is to make life as fun and comfortable as possible for her children, so the household is run according to the kids’ timetable. Alison doesn’t like rules or forcing her kids to do anything they don’t want to do, so they have no set bedtime, leading to post-midnight running around; and even when they eventually go to bed they rarely stay there. Read more & comment »

The award-winning Wife Swap continues with the Ahmed family, a strict Pakistani Muslim family who pray five times a day and choose to wear the hijab (headscarf). The backbone of their family philosophy is based on Islamic principles and their three teenage children are well-mannered, work hard and are very respectful of their parent’s wishes. Supermum Nuzhat works full time, studies, manages all the cooking and household chores, and keeps a keen eye on what her children are doing.

Deborah Escott works as an admin director for a theatre company and is the sole breadwinner in her liberal family. Husband Andy is a musician and house husband who looks after their three-year-old daughter Emily and 16-year-old Becky, Debs’s daughter from a previous relationship. Becky has recently come out as a lesbian. Will these two very different mums ever see eye to eye? How will husband Shakil react when Deborah arranges for his two teenage daughters to attend a live music gig and how does Nuzhat deal with a rebellious teenage daughter whose sexuality is a direct challenge to her religious beliefs?

Sunday 15th April Channel 4 8PM

Wife Swap , the BAFTA-award-winning hit show, returns with a new series. Wheelchair user Ruth, an active and health conscious mum from Shropshire, swaps places with Sue, an armchair loving mother of four from Kent. At 17, Ruth was involved in an accident that left her a paraplegic. Despite this she is an incredibly active mum of two who doesn’t let anything stop her from living life to the max. She is extremely passionate about healthy eating, limits sugar and salt in her house and has strict control over what her well-mannered children do and don’t eat.

Despite a demanding job working with adults with learning difficulties, Sue ‘runs’ her household from her favourite armchair in front of the TV while her four daughters bicker around her. At mealtimes the kitchen turns into a fast food café. The freezer is packed with pizzas and chips and there’s always an endless supply of crisps, chocolate and biscuits. How will Sue’s family react to their new ‘Mum’, when Ruth bins the junk and enforces a healthy eating regime? And when Sue introduces chocolates and sweets along with her new rules to the household, will Ruth’s children overdose on their sugar rush? Wife Swap: The Aftermath follows on E4, with Ruth and Sue meeting again after watching the show go out.

Channel 4, Sunday 8th April, 8PM

A couple who appear in this years series of Wife Swap have revealed that they like to Wife Swap in real life too.

The Sun reports:

Publican Steve Tyler and his stripper partner Tori Martin meet up with other couples for swingers’ nights where “anything goes”.

Bisexual blonde Tori — real name Justine — has also been filmed by common-law hubby Steve enjoying lesbian romps at wild sex parties.

Of course, their new partners, Andy and Paula Wroath, a straight laced couple of horse trainers, know nothing of their professions or history…you can imagine how that revelation went down!

You can catch up with the couples on Channel 4 on the April 22.

Wife Swap , the BAFTA-award winning hit series, is back with a celebrity swap. Debbie McGee, wife of magician and entertainer-extraordinaire Paul Daniels, swaps places with outspoken radio presenter Vanessa Feltz.

Singer Ben Ofoedu and Vanessa are enjoying a whirlwind romance. Ben is ten years younger than Vanessa, and after four and a half months of dating he has just asked her to marry him. As Ben says to the reporters at one of the celebrity events they attend, “we’re celebrating love at the moment”. Mother of two Vanessa says she’s astonished by her new relationship. “Ben is the most extraordinary gentleman, and the fact that he noticed me is completely mind-boggling, it didn’t occur to me in a million years that he could fancy me.” Read more & comment »

In the second episode of Wife Swap , the award-winning hit series, female comic JoJo swaps with Dawn from Doncaster.

JoJo is the mother of three children by her ex-husband: Ruaridh (aged 13), Eilidh (aged eight) and Ciara (aged 11); and Fynn (aged two) by current partner Allan. She’s a straight-talking woman who boasts that she’s not a “motherly mum”. She prizes self-reliance and independence in her kids; in the mornings, for example, she stays in bed until 11:00am, while the three older children make their own breakfasts and packed lunches and get themselves off to school. She’s proud of her family, and her parenting style, which she refers to as “healthy neglect”.

JoJo boasts that she’s got too much of a life to spend it doing housework; in fact, the cleaning is done according to a rota where the children do more than their parents.

By contrast, Dawn believes that cleanliness is all-important: “seeing lovely bubbles swishing around in a washing machine is every woman’s dream.” Her two children, Lewis (aged 12) and Kirstie (aged 11) do nothing in the house, and neither does her current partner, Garry. He and Dawn have been together for six years, but Garry doesn’t lift a finger in the house, and only contributes financially in the rare event of him finding a few days’ work. But Dawn believes that “the role of a perfect woman is to keep a clean house, put a hot meal on the table and be a tart in the bedroom.”

How will JoJo cope with a cleaning routine which includes 15 hours of ironing a week, and a partner who spends every night out with his mates? What will Dawn think of JoJo’s messy home and her philosophy of “healthy neglect”? And how will Dawn’s new husband survive two weeks with the “most controlling” women he’s ever met?

In another episode from the award-winning hit series, laid-back Kelly and regimented Donna try to impose their own rules on households with markedly different attitudes. Kelly lives with her partner, Lee, and seven children. She doesn’t believe in routine or timetables; her children do what they like when they like. There are no bedtimes, and no homework. Lee doesn’t lift a finger round the house, even when he’s out of work.

Donna’s family runs a little differently. She lives with househusband Craig and two sons, and the household runs on routine. Donna will check her sons’ homework, make sure that they’ve done their chores, and guarantee that they eat properly. How will Kelly cope in a house where routine and structure are so important?

Can Donna get Lee to take responsibility and help out with the chores? And how will schoolteacher Donna cope in a house where seven children are allowed to run riot?

Wife Swap airs on E4 on 15th January 2007

Wife Swap Star Lizzie Bardsley has admitted to looking for love on an online dating service.

The mother of eight who faced court charges on charges of benefit fraud after appearing on the show said to The People:

“I went on the website in May – nothing ventured, nothing gained. But to be honest I’ve still not found my Prince Charming.”

Her profile on girlsdateforfree.com states

“I would like a Prince Charming and not a frog prince, or do they only exist in fairy tales… well let’s hope they don’t,”

She adds: “Yes I’ve got kids but that doesn’t mean I’m looking for a dad for them, they’ve already got one of those. I’m on here for me!”

If you had to come up with a list of a million or so of the most popular people in Britain, it’s a pretty safe bet that Edwina Currie would not be on that list. Over the years, she has shown herself to be a pretty odious character, both in and out of office. So it’s saying something that after she spent a few days on Celebrity Wife Swap she seemed almost human.

The producers of the show had arranged for her to trade place with Jenny (better known as “Booby”), the long suffering wife of John McCririck.

As soon as they met, John was quizzing Edwina about her affair with John Major. (Note to self: check if inflicting Visions of Currie liberating Major’s tucked-in shirt-tails from his underpants can be classed as psychological torture and/or abuse of human rights.) And then it got worse.

Edwina found out that Jenny’s daily routine with John McCririck, a real life Jabba the Hut, was not fun, she had to act as his PA, chauffeur the Man Pig around, fetch and carry for him and put up with the human fog horn’s bellowed orders. Worse still was the fact that John spent most of his time at home wallowing semi naked in bed with only his off-white y-fronts to preserve his dignity where he expected Edwina to serve him with food and drink. Initially, Edwina seemed to take this in her stride but she finally snapped, throwing a glass of wine at McCririck who responded by cranking up his obnoxiousness to 11. Pretty soon after that he reduced the former Tory harridan to tears. It was at this point that I actually felt sorry for her.

Meanwhile, Jenny was enjoying a relaxing week with Edwina’s husband JJ, an ex-policeman who seemed to be a real gent. I’m pretty surprised that Booby didn’t run of with the Bobby.

The reunion was a pretty telling; Edwina nearly ran into JJ’s arms and hugged him whilst Jenny slouched up to John with a polite hello.

Edwina managed to spectacularly shoot herself in the foot at the last moment and blow any empathy you develop for during the interview between the two couples by shouting at Jenny. Oh well, what can you expect from a Tory Minister?

This article was written by Wodge, our newest contributor at Unreality TV. Check out Wodges own blog here.

WIFE SWAP LIZZIE AND HUBBY SPLIT

TV Wife Swap scrounger Lizzie Bardsley has split with her husband Mark after a series of rows.

The mum-of-eight, who bragged in the Channel 4 show how her family raked in £37,500 a year in handouts, is staying in her three-bed semi.

Jobless Mark has left the family home in Rochdale, Lancs.

Lizzie, 32, who had been married for nearly eight years, said yesterday: “It is amicable and we wish to be left alone.”

A source added: “They’re a feisty couple and have been having some seriously loud bust-ups.”

Earlier this year a court ordered Lizzie to repay £5,000 in benefits after she failed to declare her television show earnings

Tonight saw the last in the series of Wife Swap (USA). But if you missed it don’t worry you can get the story of the whole episode right here!

The face off at the end of the show was quite emotional when Ramona Jan told husband Andre Juran that she was really jealous of the other couple’s relationship and closeness, and it proved to me that there is no perfect way to conduct family life. Ramona thought she had the perfect life, but then realised that her marriage lacked the closeness and common goals that Kimberly and Michael shared.

For all you wife swap addicts out there who are feeling upset at the end of the series on Channel 4 this evening, don’t despar! Catch up with all the wife swap gossip from series 4 at the Channel 4 Wife Swap website. Series 5 interviews are due to be added shortly!

After watching prudish Wilma Tofts on Mondays Wife Swap show I was fooled into believing she was the perfect housewife and mother, and spent the rest of the evening with a guilty awareness of my shortcomings and failings in both roles.

Imagine my shock when I read todays Daily Record and found out that Wilma (really what mother chooses a name like that, it’s no wonder she turned out like she did!) is not so squeaky clean after all.

In fact she is a bit of a wannabe and craves fame at any cost. So much so that she whipped up her top and bared her boobs at last years Big Brother auditions.

They musn’t have been much to look at though as she had to settle for the less popular Wife Swap instead. I wonder what she will pop up (or out) on next!

If you saw last nights Wife Swap on Channel four you will have seen housewife Cheryl Diggle a compulsive cleaner enter into the world of a biker! The result was fascinating and apparently changed her life!

Read Cheryl’s interview with the Sunday Mirror here.