***************************THE SECRET MILLIONAIRE************CH 4********9.00****************

[RTKangaMummy]

WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER

Documentary

Secret Millionaire

9:00pm - 10:00pm

Channel 4

VIDEO Plus+: 9829
Subtitles

1/5 - Ben Way

Say hello to a new reality TV wheeze: each week a rich benefactor goes under cover in a deprived area and, after secretly sizing up the locals, writes a cheque to someone that might change their life. We start with Ben Way, a 26-year-old self-made millionaire who visits the mean streets of Hackney, east London, posing as a volunteer youth worker. Through his eyes we get to know the local youngsters. My favourite is a teenager who wants to become a crime scene investigator (having watched too much CSI), though he admits that he is "kind of a lazy guy". There are other nice scenes, but in the end these programmes are all about the "reveal", in this case literally a pay-off, as Ben decides who to give money to. For all the slight creepiness in the idea of a millionaire descending from on high to scatter largesse to the little people, the reactions Ben gets are genuinely moving and the future is, you feel, a little brighter.

RT reviewer - David Butcher

.

Just seen it and agree with the reviewer. It was odd seeing him give 10 thousand to James as there didn't seem a legitimate reason for a stranger to pay him for his contribution to the community. Anyway, it was lovely to see that the money could make such a tangible difference to the club.

it was as a htank you fro all he had done
a fba prog imo

Great prog. I had my doubts half way through whether the whole concept of the programme was a remotely sensible thing to do. But I actually found the end extremely moving (and I'm normally a very logical, unemotionatl person).

Ben came across as an incredibly down-to-earth, likeable guy. Let's face it, most of us would feel like a complete fish out of water in such a club: I thought he was fantastic.

its part of a series - I think its on next week with a new millionaire?

ditto roisin
dh moved form behind new car brochure to wathcng agog

i pretended NOt to cry on other sofa

snivellers unite.

liked the way he didnt justs do it for hte kick too that he is long term heling he project
god i fall the tosery investmente wankers did suchlinke

I didn't snivel, I just shivered under my blanket with my hot water bottle ..

I have had far too little sympathy on my I have no hot water and no heating thread

It was lovely and he was lovely.

However, they sort of set him up by placing him in a youth group where the leader was obviously a saint and the group needed loads of money. He didn't have to look very far for deserving cases. If they had really let him lose in the wider community - god knows what he might have ended up doing.

Not a criticism, just good researchers.

Also the scene at the end where the entire clan were gathered in the kitchen was a little set up.

i htink it was set up to film his "goobye" not his handing over the cheque

WEDNESDAY 06 DECEMBER

Documentary

Secret Millionaire

9:00pm - 10:00pm

Channel 4

VIDEO Plus+: 1983
Subtitles

2/5 - John Elliott

This is a strange and wonderful series. For the second episode, our undercover philanthropist is John Elliott, a big, bluff, water-cooler mogul from County Durham who visits down-at-heel Kensington in Liverpool, secretly searching for locals to write cheques to. With his thinning white hair, scruffy stubble and rounded figure, John could be taken for a low-rent Father Christmas, even if he never entirely shrugs off the assured air of a man worth £60 million. At the bottom of society's heap he meets some terrific people and has his conservative views on immigration rocked by a visit to an asylum centre. In the course of the programme, you may find yourself warming enormously to him, not least because he has such a healthy disrespect for his own fortune and, endearingly, admits it when he's wrong.

.

NOW

now