Life Is Toff, BBC3 - review: Proof that posh people can be ignorant and badly behaved too
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Your support makes all the difference.It’s been 10 years since we last saw the Fulford family roaming around their crumbling family seat in Devon, in Cutting Edge documentary The F***ing Fulfords.
Now the foul-mouthed aristocrats are back for a six-part BBC3 series, Life Is Toff. There’s still a lot of swearing, shooting and indoor skating, but now the children are all grown up and Arthur, the 21-year-old heir is soon to assume responsibility for managing the 3,000-acre estate. Like his father before him, Arthur bears an uncanny resemblance to Harry Enfield doing an impression of a posho, but he might be the only man for the job. Middle-child Humphrey is leaving for the army, youngest Edmund can “barely spell his own name,” and as for Tilly? Well, she’s a girl.
The original documentary was little more than an unedifying excuse to point and laugh, but Life Is Toff might have more value. At least it provides a useful corrective to the likes of Benefits Street, by demonstrating that posh people can be just as ignorant, lazy and badly behaved as anyone else – and with far less excuse. That said, the Fulfords are clearly more canny than this programme lets on. Their appearance fee for the show and subsequent publicity should keep Great Fulford Manor in fresh paint for a few more years to come.
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