A NORTH-EAST country house which hosts reality TV show Ladette to Lady has been inundated with pleas from women wanting help to become more ladylike.

The owners of Eggleston Hall, in Teesdale, County Durham, are now considering a return to its days as a finishing school after being inundated with applications for lessons in etiquette and social skills.

About five million viewers are tuning in to ITV1 every Thursday night to watch tutors try to transform a group of loud-mouthed, beer-drinking ladettes into refined and respectable ladies.

Following its success, young women are now clamouring for a course that the hall does not yet offer but Lady Juliet Gray, who runs the house with architect husband Sir William Gray, admits may be on the horizon.

She said: "We are amazed by the reaction to the programme. Who would have thought it in this day and age?

"We are now definitely planning a short etiquette course and will see how it goes. Probably for about four days, and we would take only ten at a time. Maybe we will do it a few times and just see the response."

Subjects will include deportment, etiquette, cookery, flower arranging, make-up and hair and possibly tips on cleaning silverware.

Students will also learn social graces such as introductions and how to be a good hostess.

Among the inquiries are a group of women who want to learn social graces, a young woman from Saudi Arabia who wants to complete her education in England, and parents who want their daughters to use a gap-year to become more refined.

Lady Gray, who was educated at Harrogate Ladies College, says she does not act like the lady of the manor and does not consider herself as a role model.

She believe the greatest gain for students joining the course, probably led by Gillian Harbord who took part in the programme, would be a boost in confidence.

Lady Gray, a child psychologist, said: "I think the important thing is for people to feel confident in themselves and to carry themselves in any social situation."