Rudegirls (BBC2): IT'S an uncertain job reviewing TV from preview tapes.

I was expecting to watch the programme about the boy who gave birth to his twin in C4's BodyShock but ended up, through a tape mix-up, seeing teenage girls behaving badly.

Morgan Matthews' uncompromising film Rudegirls (BBC2 tonight) makes depressing viewing. Figures suggest that teenage girls' behaviour is growing worse, with nearly twice as many being locked up as three years ago.

Matthews set out to follow the exploits of girl gangs or crews, and ended up focusing on half-a-dozen girls who rob, fight, swear and generally behave as if rules and regulations don't apply to them. To a certain extent, they're the product of their environment and, perhaps most significant of all, most had lost their fathers early in their lives.

Rudee, of The A-Girls crew, likes fighting and afterwards feels good with herself and "like I've done a good deed". She has no time for people born out of the country. People who discriminate against her deserve to die, she states matter-of-factly.

In Essex, Dee leads the Dagenham Crew in a town associated with the motor industry. She takes an interest in cars - stealing them. She has numerous cars dotted around the neighbourhood. You couldn't help but smile when one was vandalised and she told off the person responsible.

Dee worries about friend Stacy's treatment of her new baby. This was where the film became most uncomfortable, and the possibility of harm being done to the infant was a real concern as Stacy became unable to cope. "If I killed myself, it would make life a lot easier," she said. Fourteen-year-old Sherry was uncontrollable, harassing the local Hasidic Jewish community. Her attitude was simple: "When you're looking for something to do, let's go and bully people." She hadn't been to school for six months because it meant getting up too early.

How much the girls were playing up for the cameras is uncertain. Certainly, the boasts of Dee that she was wanted by the police were proved to be untrue after so-called friend Stacy shopped her following a falling out. Their mothers seemed unwilling and unable to control them, letting them do exactly as they liked. Sherry's mother's attitude towards others in the community seemed as bad as her daughter's.

By the end, you were beginning to have some sympathy with the plight of these rudegirls, despite their anti-social behaviour and disrespect for people and property. They wouldn't, I suspect, thank you for your understanding, but would be more likely to give you a mouthful of abuse.

Published: 09/12/2003