Ladies from cobbers

May 31 2009 by Ian Robson, Sunday Sun

ONCE again the doors of a North stately home are opened to the type of woman you don’t talk about in polite society.

A third series of Ladette to Lady takes eight rough diamonds and attempts to turn them into the girls of an eligible bachelor’s dreams.

The series is filmed at Eggleston Hall, near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

This year all the contestants are Australian, but they still pose a challenge to the staff of the so-called finishing school.

Who have we got this year?

Well, there’s barmaid Maria, whose party trick is to fit her fist into her mouth. Student Emily says she lives for the nights she can’t remember in the morning.

There’s a miner who says her idea of a good time is to go on the p*** with the lads. Among the contestants is a stripper, a hospitality worker who says she has no shame and a call centre consultant with the habit of falling from trees and roofs when drunk.

It sounds as if the staff of Eggleston Hall have their work cut out for them this time.

A spokesman for the programme said: “During the course the ladettes will learn deportment, elocution, floristry and sexual etiquette and their progress will be assessed weekly by the staff through a series of challenges and tasks.

“They must excel and show a genuine desire to change in order to avoid elimination.

“They will also be exposed to a series of elite social events, meeting some of Britain’s most eligible bachelors. Mixing with millionaires, viscounts and gorgeous heirs will come as a cultural shock to the girls whose usual courtship tends to involve swilling shots and flashing the flesh in nightclubs.”

The attempts to turn ugly ducklings into swans gets off to a bad start when staff hear reports that police have been called to meet the flight from Australia. Social nightmares follow as the girls are put through their paces.

The staff again include school principal Gill Harbord, who has spent her entire career teaching at finishing schools.

Vice-principal and cookery teacher Rosemary Shrager is another disciplinarian. And acid-tongued etiquette teacher Liz Brewer will drum the bad manners and foul language out of the girls to turn them into ladies of the highest order.

LADETTE TO LADY, Tuesday, ITV1, 9pm.