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Is the Secret Millionaire a public sham?

Posted in Media December 21st, 2006 by Arif Durrani

I finally got to catch one of the Channel 4 series Secret Millionaire last night, and have to admit to being slightly bemused by the end of it.

Launched on 29 November, the premise is simple. Each week a different multi-millionaire searches for ‘poor’ people, whose lives he/she can change for the better by splashing a bit of cash. Our millionaire is in disguise as a ‘poor person’ too, to slyly fit into the neighbourhood for ten days.

Last night this happened to be a run down council estate in Middlesbrough, and ‘fitting in’ meant dressing in jeans and an ill fitting top … and not shaving of course – just to ensure that all over, unclean proletariat look.

It was as heavy handed as it sounds.

To make matters worse, after ten days undercover, last nights millionaire ended up giving away relatively paltry sums of £5k and £10k. We were reliably informed that he was worth around £60m at the start of the programme – making his total philanthropy of £25k equivalent to 0.04%, or the same as a man earning £30k giving away £12 …ummm. Bill Gates needn’t worry just yet.

Don’t forget this is all being conducted in front of the cameras.

That aside, the very format of the programme was so cringingly naïve I really had to keep checking with ‘the one who likes to shop’ that it wasn’t a Gervais-like spoof. Before revealing himself as the successful, generous guy we all knew him to be, our millionaire felt the need to put a suit on and get his hair recut – after it had been hacked by a working class person on the Middlesbrough council estate earlier in the programme – before presenting his cheque.

Reality TV, don’t you just love it?