Teens and Tiaras
Ch4, 17 December 9:00pm - 10:00pm Sometimes the best documentaries are the ones that capture the dying days of something. Equally, the eccentric upper classes generally offer fertile ground for fi lm crews. This documentary by Jane Treays promises to combine the two in a portrait of what remains of the London debutante season, once a high-society ritual where well-bred gels met suitable, often titled, young men in a glittering marriage market presided over by the Queen herself. These days, "the Season" has largely dissipated but Treays has found two determined ball organisers, Jennie and Patricia, who refuse to let it die altogether. The fi lm was still being edited as RT went to press, but we're told it will follow their efforts to keep up standards in the face of a broader intake (from - shudder - the middle classes) and that we'll meet girls called Araminta and Tamara who persist in seeing the Season as a route to happiness. The whole curious affair culminates in the Queen Charlotte's Ball, where the debs must array themselves in elaborate white dresses and curtsey to a multitiered cake. Jennie and Patricia are keen to keep up standards, but these days the dresses and pearls are borrowed and the royal presence is not the Queen but Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga Romanoff.
Radiotimes
