Programme on BBC TV tonight

For those in the UK or with access to the BBC channel, there's a programme on tonight at 2235 UK time about "women who marry men much younger than them" (part of the BBC's One Life documentary series).

I would expect the usual imbalanced couples being portrayed, but I will watch anyway in the hope that a "normal" relationship will be shown in a good light.

Yeah, was going to watch that but decided to watch the documentary on eunuchs on channel 5 instead. I mean, the title of the programme: Sugar Mummies gives a hint on what kind of t.v this will be....

Let us know if it was any good...

For those in the UK or with access to the BBC channel, there's a programme on tonight at 2235 UK time about "women who marry men much younger than them" (part of the BBC's One Life documentary series).

I would expect the usual imbalanced couples being portrayed, but I will watch anyway in the hope that a "normal" relationship will be shown in a good light.

So what's the verdict, Rosie? Was it slanted or informative?

Not on for another 6 hours or so. It's 15.14pm here, and the programme is at 22pm....

Sorry, I am not able to tape it....

Oh derr...I thought you meant it was on last night.

How solipsistic of me:)

Thanks for the tip off, I'll check it out :)

Predictable and not even very well produced.

Bored-sounding narrator threw in some ridiculous comments like "Does she look like she's in her mid-20s to you?" about a 38 year old woman (who cares if she does or not?), "I started to think it was the mother complex" (not heard THAT one before), "I'd never thought before now how arthritis could affect the sexual side of these type of relationships" (My sister has arthritis and she is 27), and weirdest of all, "One of the lessons I feel I learned is that age gap couples have trouble maintaining friendships" (Why on earth...? Maybe they shouldn't have purposely picked quiet people or socially "odd" people for the programme in the first place)

There was one couple on the programme which I would consider as having a normal relationship. After this, you had the weird geeky boy who was being totally controlled by the older woman, the couple who were clearly only there for the sex (they broke up, what a surprise), the very very odd couple who seemed to spend all their time shouting about people looking at them in the street and enjoying the controversy (while pretending to hate it) - none of these were in a loving and ordinary relationship and could present it in an intelligent way anyway.

I don't know why I expected any differently!

To be honest, I consider myself to have a normal, loving relationship and I would never go on a programme like this as I feel there's nothing remotely entertaining or unusual about my circumstances, so maybe that's why every time a programme like this is produced they attract the people who feel that they have something to prove? And ultimately TV is about entertainment, so they're naturally going to pick the controversial couples over the ones who can actually show how a great AGR works. It's just a shame they package it up as a "documentary".

I have had arthritis since I was a teenager. It was not much as a teen, but got worse as I got older. By the time I married my first husband (I married him when I was 25), the arthritis was really bad sometimes. Now it's even worse that I'm 46.

And you know what? Sex only got BETTER as I got older! It hasn't interferred with anything I normally would have done. What are these others doing? Some kind of gymnastics?

Well. Glad I watched the programme on eunuchs then......

Well. Glad I watched the programme on eunuchs then......

That was 45 minutes of my life I wish I hadn't wasted. :( And I should have been packing too! :rolleyes:

You could tell it was a completely unbalanced point of view right from the start of it, it was terrible. Where on earth did they drag those couples up from? It makes me want to go on something like that simply to redress the balance!

you had the weird geeky boy who was being totally controlled by the older woman

I cannot believe just how much she controlled him. At first they seemed like a good couple, seemed to share something really nice. But the way she talked about his parents (especially his mother) you'd have thought they were despicable, but they didn't appear like that at all. I have to say that when the parents were over and she was going on about how they don't use her name and say 'her', etc, I found it very amusing when his mum walked into the kitchen, addressed her by name, and asked her if she wanted any apples. Then his dad walked in and addressed her by name... in fact, she was addressed by name at least 3 times within 20 seconds of complaining about it, all on camera!!!!!

it's a shame that the program was such a disappointment. Maybe Ageless should create a documentary of it's own? I've had wide experience with film, film study, and film editing/creation programs :)


Good idea! Can I help? :)

it's a shame that the program was such a disappointment. Maybe Ageless should create a documentary of it's own? I've had wide experience with film, film study, and film editing/creation programs :)

Good idea. I believe that Ageless has been mentioned in a documentary once, possibly on A&E.

Oh well.

It'll be interesting to see how Montel handles it.

There is a banner on his website saying "Are you an older woman dating a much younger man? If so, tell us your story here."

I can't see when the episode will be on yet - but I bet it's soon.

Maybe they can't get decent people on the shows because normal people have jobs & families and the show calls you 2 days ahead of time to go to the taping!!

Good idea. I believe that Ageless has been mentioned in a documentary once, possibly on A&E.

You're right WR, in fact, I have a copy of that A&E show. It was hosted by the guy who played Carrie's boyfriend Aiden on Sex in the City. It was actually a slightly fluffy, but decent documentary about age-gap couples, both OW/YM and OM/YW.

There was a women in her 70's who was married to a guy in his 50's. They'd been together quite some time, and you could tell the woman was still quite vital and they seemed incredibly happy. The husband made a point of saying the sex was still great, and he couldn't imagine being with any other partner.

The older man who was with a younger woman on the other hand, was quite emotional. He was in his late 50's, she was in her late 20's. He felt like he was going to lose her because of his own mortality, and she clearly wasn't struggling as much as he was...

...in any case, it was interesting, although not profound.

I notice all your comments are about older women with younger men, but we were also on the programme, - I am 69 and Nikki is 32, and we are very happy together, as anyone who watched the programme could easily tell.
Any comments?