Fairy Godfathers (C4) Successful reality shows, like Wife Swap, match like with unlike and set the cameras rolling to watch the confrontations.

The secret is in good research, in finding the right participants to ensure that conflict is inevitable. A woman who hates children is sent to live in a house resembling the abode of the old woman who lived in a shoe. A woman who says the worst thing would be sharing with someone of a different colour opens the door to find her guest is. . . well, you know how it goes.

There are no prizes for guessing where the idea for Fairy Godfathers came from - the US TV hit Queer Eye For A Straight Guy, in which a team of homosexual men give a heterosexual man a makeover. The premise is that gays are so much better at fashion and style than straight men.

Fairy Godfathers is a bit of a fun that shouldn't be taken too seriously because it trades on stereotypes and could be quite offensive if taken the wrong way. Happily in the first episode, everyone had their tongue in their cheek, whatever their sexual persuasion.

Having engaged fashion designer Colin Woolfendon and stylist Nick Bagrie to orchestrate the clean-up act, the producers searched for the complete opposites as the victims. North Yorkshire country gents of the farming, hunting, and drinking variety were just what the makeover doctor ordered.

Chris Gibbon and Mike Spink believe a woman's place is in the home, doing housework, and that check shirts and chinos are the height of fashion.

The publicity describes Colin and Nick as "both coincidentally gay" which is strange, to say the least, when the programme is called Fairy Godfathers. The whole point is to make macho men co-habit with gay men who are replacing their female other halves for a week.

The scene was set for gay sensibilities to clash with traditional Yorkshire values. There was the added tension that Chris and Mike were unused to being around gay men, so much so that they appeared to have barricaded themselves in their bedrooms on the first night for fear of nocturnal intrusion by their guests.

Mickey Mouse waistcoats and naff underpants were discarded. Baths were taken and teeth cleaned regularly.

Vacuuming and ironing were done and meals cooked. Perhaps worst of all, Chris and Mike had to go shopping in a department store.

As well as Gay Swap, the programme has elements of What Not To Wear, Changing Rooms, How Clean Is Your House? , and even C4's other new makeover show 10 Years Younger. It only lacked Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen to make a full house.

No one could take offence because it was all so good-natured, with the two Yorkshiremen submitting to the cleaning, personal hygiene and fashion demands of Colin and Nick with little argument. By the end, the pair even admitted that their gay companions were good blokes. Even if they revert to their old ways now, a few prejudices have been broken down.

Published: 30/04/2004