Famous, Rich and Jobless

For four celebrities unemployment is about to become a chilling reality, as they start on their emotional journey for Famous, Rich and Jobless. Actor Larry Lamb, television gardener Diarmuid Gavin, interior designer Meg Matthews, and model-turned-mechanic Emma Parker Bowles put unemployment in the spotlight by agreeing to swap their fame and fortune for a world of joblessness, job-hunting and surviving on the poverty line and benefits. With everything they value stripped away, some old clothes and just under 10 pounds a day to live on, they have to adjust to being out of work, out of money, and out of their comfort zones as they discover what it is really like to be jobless in the UK today. The are guided and assisted by Emma Harrison, founder of A4e (the largest employment agency in the world, responsible for getting thousands of people back to work), and Craig Last, a former youth worker for the charity Centrepoint, who has helped many homeless young people find jobs. At the beginning of their eight day experience they are sent to four unemployment blackspots across the country, where they spend their first four days surviving on benefits and looking for work. Larry goes to Hartlepool, Diarmuid to Hackney, Meg spends her time in the Ebbw Valley, and Emma tries to find work in Wolverhampton. A night of constant rejections as he hunts for work makes Diarmuid get very emotional; Meg succeeds in earning some money by making friends with the locals in her community; Emma struggles to overcome her addiction issues to get a job in a bar and to get by; and Larry decides to eke out his benefits money as long as he can, to avoid any attempt to look for work. He feels that, in a difficult employment market, he would be considered too old.

Four celebrities continue to learn about the realities of unemployment as they move in with an unemployed buddy in the second part of this documentary, which explores joblessness in moden Britain. Larry Lamb, Diarmuid Gavin, Emma Parker Bowles and Meg Matthews have been stripped of all their money, clothes and personal possessions, and are experiencing what it's like to be out of work and out of money. The four travel to Yate, Bury, Wilmslow and Wolverhampton to live with people who are experiencing life without a job and without much prospect of one. Their aim is to try and encourage their new friends to go out and find work. How do they help their buddies, and how successful are they? Diarmiud moves in to the six-bedroom house of benefits family Eddy, Christina and their five kids. But he lasts less than a few hours before moving into a local Bury hotel. Meg inspires reformed ex-con Nick from Wolverhampton to ignore the stream of job rejections and find confidence to keep looking for work opportunities. Larry turns relationship counsellor and recruitment advisor in an attempt to help recently-unemployed former sales manager Mark from Wilmslow get out of his depression and back into employment. And Emma spends four days looking for jobs for 22-year-old single mum Louise from Yate, near Bristol. The physical and emotional experience of the last eight days has challenged their prejudices and preconceptions of joblessness, and the different reasons and circumstances that leave someone without a job that we take for granted. But will it change their attitudes beyond the programme when they return to the comfort and safety of their old lives?