TV: How'd You Get So Rich?, Episode 2, C4

My girlfriend walked in on me when I was watching the second instalment of Katherine Ryan’s overview of the wealthy and thought she had caught me watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I think comedian-slash-presenter Ryan might have been teaching the founder of Pimlico Plumbers to twerk at the time.

This week the jet-setting Canadian meets more multi-millionaires around the world. It’s both a criticism and a compliment that Ryan is not particularly judgemental about how they made their money or what they spend their wad on and it’s nice that once again she does meet people (well one, maybe two) who have grafted for a living rather than woken up one morning on a big bed of inherited loot.

Best value this week is aforementioned Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins – he’s the bloke who you may well have seen on other TV programmes, who looks as if he has gone into the barbers and said “give me a Rod Stewart even though I’ll never look like him apart from the hair (and the tan).”

Mullins is the archetypal lad-made-good. He started plumbing at nine and left school at 15. “Big regret,” he smirks, “I should’ve left at 14”. He says the secret of his success is turning up on time and looking smart, which would get a lot of people a long way in all sorts of professions, but I’m not sure if they would end up with a massive blue Bentley and two-going-on-three villas in Marbella. Ryan seems to warm to Mullins – she certainly warms to his blue Bentley.

Next up is Nicholas Frankl, who is a party organiser in Monaco. It says something about how rich the place is that even the party organisers are millionaires. Nicholas and his twin sister organise swish bashes on superyachts where the guests mingle and sip champagne. The boat has to be looked after so guests have to remove their shoes. Not Nicholas though - he is so smooth his soles don’t even leave a mark. 

Final interviewee is Isabella Barrett, a designer who has her own range of clothes. She is ten years old. Yes, ten years old. What were you doing when you were ten years old? She is so confident and articulate I began to wonder if she had the same disease as Benjamin Button and was actually an old person getting younger and younger. At this rate she will be able to buy out Charlie Mullins by the time she is a baby. 

She certainly puts Ryan in her place, kicking her off her fashion shoot just as Ryan thinks she is going to get her big modelling break. A fun show that will have you simultaneously drooling with envy and plotting revolution – which is why Ryan is the perfect host. She also seems a little conflicted, torn between pulling a face and hoping the men in their flash cars go bust and maybe quietly hoping for a marriage proposal.

How'd You Get So Rich?, C4, Monday, March 13, 10pm. Then on catch-up here.

 

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