Last updated at 12:06, Wednesday, 06 May 2009

THE makers of The Secret Millionaire have been slammed over the way they portrayed Barrow, with many viewers feelin the TV programme showed the town in a bad light. But Barrow's not new to negative publicity. MOLLY LYNCH reports

• Related article: Barrow charity: We don't want secret millionaire money

The Secret Millionaire Rob Calcraft in Barrow

Colin Biggs, whose Thrift charity shop featured in Sunday’s Channel 4 programme, says “they ripped Barrow and Barrow Island to bits” and has vowed to give away the £10,000 handed to him on the show by millionaire Rob Calcraft.

And Barrow mayor, Councillor Dave Roberts, believes the TV show, in which Barrow’s tag of being the most working class place in the UK was referred to, did the town’s rundown image no favours.

But it certainly isn’t the first time someone’s take on Barrow has sparked controversy.

In 1999, style magazine FHM joked that anyone who lives in Barrow is “a failure” – a comment which fuelled outrage and resulted in journalists from the popular ‘lads mag’ being invited to spend a day in the town. FHM subsequently published a five-page feature on Barrow, which although praising the town and its people, did little to wash away the stereotypes of an isolated, northern outpost.

Then in 2003, Barrow made it into the book: Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK (albeit way down the list at number 47).

This tongue-in-cheek publication said of Barrow: “The near redundant shipyard provides the glorious skyline of rusting cranes, beautifully set in front of the offshore rigs.”

In August 2007, hard-hitting television programme, Ann Widdecombe Versus The Benefits Culture, focused on the number of people in Barrow receiving state handouts. Much of the 30-minute show was filmed in the Central Workingmen’s Club in Preston Street where, it was later claimed, customers were plied with drink by the producers to “loosen their tongues”.

Ex-Tory MP Ms Widdecombe said people claiming Incapacity Benefit in Barrow outnumbered those on the dole by four to one. She quizzed claimants, a GP and a recruitment agent about the issue and later referred to Barrow as “Britain’s so-called sicknote capital”.

And last September Barrow was put forward as the most working class town in the UK.

The research, carried out by Locallife.co.uk, claimed Barrow had more typically working class features , per capita, than anywhere else in Britain.

It said there was a fish and chip shop, working men’s club, bookmakers, greyhound track or trade union office for every 2,917 people in the town. The programme’s narrator also said Barrow’s rates of teenage pregnancy, binge drinking and suicide were above the national average. There was also footage of dog muck, as well as houses boarded-up in places like Arthur Street, which is being prepared for a regeneration project.

Barrow has been mentioned in a less than flattering way many times on TV sitcoms and soaps. Examples include Bob Ferris (Rodney Bewes) accusing Terry Collier (James Bowlam) of picking up “a scrubber from Barrow-in-Furness” in BBC comedy The Likely Lads and Reg Holdsworth, in Coronation Street, describing a visit to the town as “like going to the end of the Earth and 20 miles on”.

Val Holden, regeneration officer for Barrow Borough Council, was unhappy with the way The Secret Millionaire portrayed Barrow and believes the town has been given unnecessary bad press.

She said: “I was so furious watching The Secret Millionaire, I am surprised my settee did not set alight.

“I think the person who edited that deliberately set out to portray Barrow in a bad light.

“I suppose they had to do that because the people featured in the programme were so nice and kind. “Channel 4 had to try and make it look bad.

“Even the beach was made to look dull and grey.

“The wartime drama Housewife, 49, with Victoria Wood, was filmed in Barrow and it did not put us in a bad light.

“You could go to any of the most beautiful cities in this country and they will still have more rundown areas which need demolishing.

“They even blurred out the Love Barrow banner in the background at the end of the programme, because the producers probably thought: ‘God forbid anyone actually loves Barrow.’ Something like that makes you wonder: What’s the point in all of the work that goes into the town?”

Margie Arts, of the Barrow and Furness Pensioners’ Association, moved to Barrow from London in 1972.

She said: “In the past, Barrow has had a bad press. Watching The Secret Millionaire, it was not the Barrow I know. They filmed at places that are going to be knocked down anyway.

“The one thing that always comes across is the friendliness and generosity of the people of Barrow.

“In The Secret Millionaire, it was shown that Barrow is a place which cares about its young and older people. The footage of Drop Zone showed that children excluded from school for whatever reason are given a second chance.

“There is a sense of community here. You can walk down the street and see someone you know all of the time.

“He (the undercover millionaire Rob Calcraft) would definitely not get that in London and I know because I lived there.

“Barrow is a smashing place.

“If I won the lottery, I wouldn’t move.”

Alan Hartley, who lives in Coventry but was born and bred in Barrow, contacted the Evening Mail after seeing the programme.

He said: “I was disgusted with the way Barrow was made to look on The Secret Millionaire.

“I live in Coventry now but I visit Barrow very often and I had really been looking forward to seeing Barrow on television but it was made to look like a really depressing place.”

First published at 11:39, Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk