STOP TREATING ME LIKE A KID
What are teenagers like? What are they capable of? Are we right to demonise them as being irresponsible, feckless hoodlums, or should we give them the independence they demand and stop mollycoddling them?

Stop Treating Me Like a Kid takes an in-depth look at what it’s like to be a teenager on the verge of adulthood. How will teenagers who struggle with the routine and structure of school cope with the responsibilities of adult life? How will a group of kids who are craving independence cope with the demands of employers, neighbours and each other? How will they choose to run their home? What will they choose to eat and what kind of social group will they create?

This six part series for E4 follows a group of teenagers on a rite of passage – over the course of six weeks, we take eight teenage kids and put them in a house in the middle of the English countryside. Total independence is the order of the day. For the first time in their lives, there are no adults telling them what to do – the only demand placed upon them is that they have to pay their own rent and bills, and buy their own food.

Over the course of the summer, we see them finding local jobs, losing their jobs, and going in search of new ones. We follow them as they come to terms with living in a rural community where they have to take responsibility for their own actions and behaviour. And we look at their relationships with one another.

The series is shot as an observational documentary following the kids’ individual stories and the development of the group as a whole. There are triumphs and disasters over the course of the summer. This is a series which is able to look at a tremendously diverse range of issues that affect our teenagers – we hear Johnny talking to his employer about the knife culture at home in Manchester, we see dizzy blonde Amy having to cope without handouts from her mum, we see Jade talk about how she needs her “attitude� to deal with life in her home city.

There are format elements, as each week a new teenager arrives who has the potential to replace one of the house-mates. After a nomination process, the teenagers vote on whether to retain the original house-mate, or to adopt the guest permanently. As a result, we see a girl who has dominated the house being forced to leave – with explosive results.

The series takes an honest and unfiltered look at teenage life – it’s by turns funny, disturbing and raw as we see our teenagers grapple with the realities of adult life. They often fall flat on their faces, but learn to stand back up. Over the course of the six weeks, it becomes clear that a dose of independence has done these teenagers the world of good;“bad boy� Johnny has found purpose in his work, Amy has a new sense of self-reliance, Eliot’s dad respects his son for the first time.

This is not only a series about independence, but an in-depth look at what is going on in the lives of our teenagers.

Warning: This post contains what I like to call ’sarcasm’. When I’m being sarcastic, I’ll put the sarcastic word in ’speech marks’. You have been warned.

Nikki Grahame started out on her quest for employment this evening in the first episode of Princess Nikki. The point of the show seems to be to put the sour-faced troll in a variety of extreme or unpleasant situations.

First off, she spends the day ‘assisting’ on a fishing boat, where she gets some quality career advice: “get your kit on Nikki” the fisherdude sagely advises. Alright, he was talking about putting on her waterproof gear, but still, if I was wardrobe department on Princess Nikki, I’d keep her covered up.

The ‘hilarity’ continues as the Daughter of Satan abuses a hotel owner about the quality of the facilities, eventually claiming she could run a better hotel than him. I’m sorry, but that’s just pure nastiness in my opinion. But, like the terminator of her own career, Nikki soldiers on blissfully unaware that she’s digging a huge hole for herself to disappear into. She calls in the producer and issues a load of random threats.

“You’re going to shoot yourself in the foot, I’m going home. I don’t give a fuck about the show.”

“Ooooh! Classic Nikki!”, chuckle Nikki’s last two remaining fans from the isolation wing, “She’s such a diva!”

Message to Nikki: It ain’t cute. It never was. We’re tired of your spoilt ickle girlie routine, and your fake tantrums and your namedropping Pete (Bennett or Doherty? I’m not sure.)

When the Big Brother buzz dies down, you’ll find yourself in Chummby’s Chippy again and this time there won’t be a camera crew in tow. Better brush up on those fish frying skills now…

BBLB has been ousted from its traditional Channel 4 slot for Big Brother’s 2006 series, and will instead be found every night at 7.30pm on E4, although the Sunday lunchtime outing on C4 will remain.

This could in part be due to the massive drop in viewers the show managed in the last series. After the slot was moved to a early morning breakfast slot it drew around 200,000 viewers – a far cry from the 1.8 million it had averaged in its previous home.

Thankfully the show will still be presented by the delectable Dermot O’Leary. I would gladly give up watching Corrie for him!

Well if you missed any of it first time round heres your chance to catch up with the goings on inside the house. Maybe you missed George’s freaky pussy cat impersonation, or maybe you’d like to see Michael Barrymore yelling at Jodie Marsh one more time.

Lucky for you E4 is to repeat this year’s Celebrity Big Brother in its entirety later this month.

The series will re-air every day at 8pm, beginning with the launch show on Monday, February 13.