Monday 20 August 2007

Ten Years Younger

Can somebody please tell me why is everyone hating on Nicky Hambleton-Jones aka NH-J? The presenter of Ten Years Younger has been on the receiving end of some brutal attacks in blogsphere since her programme, returned to our screens last week. Take this scathing article penned by Kathryn Flett in The Guardian where she describes NH-J as neither warm nor empathic and then our mates at TV Scoop had to get in on the action and called NH-J a gruesome fashion Nazi.

Ten Years Younger is kind of like an extreme version of Extreme Makeover where Nicky totally revamps a haggard looking female (occasionally male) with the aim of shedding ten years off their age. The transformation is totally amazing and you have to see it to believe it but then considering the amount of work that they have to endure how could they not look good? We are talking cosmetic surgery in the name of botox and chemical peels, basically whatever it takes to sap the wrinkles out. Then there is teeth whitening, new veneers or braces and this is all before they go anywhere near hair, clothes and make up. I really like this programme and find it very entertaining, I also love NH-J and I find her endearing. Her advice is honest and straight to the point and her results are fantastic and more importantly she leaves her charges looking and no doubt feeling like a million dollars.

Flett and co have criticised her tactics of humiliating her charges by parading them on the street and asking strangers their age. Ahem, excuse me but the perceived age of the charge is one of the elements of the programme and a crucial part at that. Of course it must be a dent in the ego to hear people say you look like you are 50 when you are only 33 but if you have gone so far down the road that you stop caring about your looks then I doubt that you will be too devastated about what complete strangers think. Anyway the flip side is that the charges get to flaunt their new look and make the public eat their words. Don't hate the playa, hate the game. 10 Years Younger is simply compelling and a much superior programme than the insipid How to Look Naked which is a blatant rip off.


Ten Years Younger airs on Thursday at 8.00pm on Channel 4


You can check out NH-J's cute website Tramp2Vamp here

4 cool comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post. You have hit the nail right on the head. I wonder why people criticise what other people do whilst they (critics) cannot do even a fraction of it.

I like your new profile photo. It's great.

B said...

Interesting post. I hadn't heard of her but now I'll have to do a little research.

Disneyrollergirl.net said...

I've only seen it a couple of times. My issue is firstly the title. I think a programme called 10 years younger is not helping women (or men) accept the aging process. I'm all for improving your looks to help your self esteem but aiming to look ten years younger to me is not the way forward. But hey, it's a snappy title for TV right?
Also, I can't remember how old Hambleton is but when I heard I was surprised cos she looks older than than that...kind of ironic huh?!
I guess I'm just sick of sensationalist tv. Why aren't there any good informative fashion programmes about designers, shops, psychology of fashion etc? Mary Queen Of Shops was good, you can actually learn something interesting on that, but that's just one decent programme in ages. People only watch crap like Ten Years Younger because there's no decent alternative!

Ondo Lady said...

Actually the whole point of Ten Years Younger is not to get women looking younger that their actual age. The women who are on these shows look a lot older than they actually are so the idea is to give them a makeover (or in some cases a total reconstruction) so they look close to their actual age. For example they will have a 45 year old women who looks closer to 55 so the goal will be to get her looking 10 years younger so she looks 45 which is her real age. I agree with you totally about there not being any decent fashion or style programmes on TV. Apart from The Clothes Show which is on bloody UKTV Style which I don't have there is nothing. Mary Queen of Shops was a wonderful programme and I think Channel 4 did a brilliant programme last year about the fashion industry which was presented by June Sarpong but that was just on for three weeks. When you think about it, it is shocking that there are very little fashion and style shows on TV considering how fashion is such an integral part of our lives.