The only way is CHAVSCOT
Drunken brawls. Fake tans galore. And distinctly un-ladylike ladies. Inside the gated mansions of the Home Counties’ most upmarket town residents are in uproar, as a new reality show moves Essex to Ascot
They’re just a bunch of nouveau riche wannabes
IT’S A scene reminiscent of chucking-out time in Magaluf – a riot of screaming, twenty-something women, lathered in fake tan, lunging at one another while their tipsy boyfriends try to pull them apart.
Yet look a little closer and not all is quite as it seems, for this particular mob of racegoers is as wellheeled as it is well-oiled. The hair is expensively coiffed, the frocks are designer and the stiletto shoes Louboutin or Prada.
Brawling in full view of a watching crowd of onlookers, it’s as if they’re on a special mission to prove money can’t buy class. And millions of viewers will soon discover just how right they are.
Welcome to Absolutely Ascot, a cosmetically enhanced new reality series that for the past few months has brought a gang of bronzed and buff nobodies to the very heart of Royal Berkshire.
And those who live in the immaculately manicured – and very expensive – enclave are horrified.
Ascot, of course, is synonymous with the famous Royal race meeting in June, when more than 300,000 fans join the Queen and the rest of the family for a week of big hats and champers.
Yet with its near-neighbours Windsor, Sunninghill and Sunningdale, and Wentworth, Ascot also forms one of Britain’s most exclusive areas, home to a quietly glamorous gin-and-jag set.
For decades it has been a very British type of Beverly Hills, where the great and good, including famous names from the entertainment industry, live in multi-million pound homes behind towering hedges and mature trees, many in exclusive gated communities. There are even two championship golf courses.
John Lennon and Ringo Starr lived there at the height of Beatlemania. Sir Elton John lives close by as does Gary Lineker, while Cliff Richard and the late Bruce Forsyth were long-time residents.
But to the deep chagrin of locals, their hard- won and expensively bought reputation for discretion is about to be shattered thanks to the latest, and potentially most disreputable, of the ‘structured reality’ television shows.
An irreverent offspring of Made In Chelsea and The Only Way Is Essex, Absolutely Ascot will feature a bevy of perma-tanned millennials, scooped up by producers from that social media phenomenon, Instagram.
Now the locals are hitting back, accusing the show of ‘parachuting in’ fake locals to create a distorted picture of a staid and timeless corner of London commuterland so close to Windsor Castle and its Great Park that it’s practically an extention of the Queen’s back garden.
On Ascot High Street we find Janet Hayhurst, a spritely 71-yearold furious to find that most of the cast members are not actually from the area at all, hailing instead from Grays and Braintree in Essex and Staines – now officially renamed as Staines-upon-Thames – in Surrey.
Mopping her brow in the summer heat, she asks: ‘Why are they pretending to be from here? It’s dishonest and makes me think they are setting out to portray the place in an unsavoury light.
Ascot people live quietly tucked away behind big gates and fences because they don’t want people to know about their lives.
‘Many are seriously wealthy and don’t want anyone poking their noses into their business. We also have a large number of famous faces living amongst us and they are not the sort to go around making a spectacle of themselves.’
She fears Absolutely Ascot will cheapen the town’s image in the same way that Royal Ascot has been infiltrated by drunken revellers. ‘It’s not nice and we don’t like it. So I dread the possibility of even more negative attention. I don’t think there is any chance this programme will reflect the reality of life here. That’s what these so-called reality programmes do – they can cast a negative shadow over an area.’
Another local, who asked not to be named, said: ‘I feel as if we are being exposed to a bunch of nouveau riche wannabes.
‘It’s bad enough that for Royal Ascot we get outsiders who turn the High Street into an open lavatory, get high on drugs, then make a spectacle of themselves. We really don’t need any more chavvy behaviour to taint our town.’
She won’t be encouraged by rumours that TV producers deliberately scouted participants during Royal Ascot, which has gained an unwelcome reputation for unruly behaviour.
No wonder Ascot Racecourse’s owners refused to take part, obliging the producers to take their cameras to nearby Windsor Racecourse instead.
The sense of outrage has already
exploded on social media, with the Facebook group Ascot People, which has 10,000 members, awash with worried comments from those who claim to have seen filming taking place at several locations including a restaurant, on the village green and even a supermarket.
One contributor fretted that the show would hit house prices, another complained the participants were all ‘chavvy’ outsiders who would lower the tone of the area. ‘Dear God, could it get any worse?’ asked another.
Megan Pollard works in Ascot Barbers, which was used as a backdrop for one of the show’s storylines, so had a ringside seat. She confirms: ‘ They are young, wealthy and mostly living off family money. They’re just show- offs who go around dripping i n expensive j ewellery, Rolex watches and designer clothes.’
Adrianne Watkins, 23, works at the popular Bar1 and believes the programme makers are using the name Ascot because of the brand association. ‘It’s not really representative of life here,’ she says.
‘My friend Amber Tucker is on the show and she actually lives in Maidenhead. I can only assume real Ascot residents did not rush to sign up for the show. I think Amber is using it to raise her profile before opening up a hair salon. I suppose it’s a good business strategy.’
Given the list of those known to have signed up for the show, residents’ fears are well founded. They include Angel Stanley, 19, who hails from Hayes, West London. When she was 13, her father Jason won £1 million on the Lottery. A keen Ascot racegoer, she appears to have enjoyed spending her Dad’s winnings, boasting online of glamorous holidays to Majorca and Dubai.
Claudia Laura Smith is desperate to be a singer. She stars on the show along with her semi-professional footballer brother Samson Lee Smith. They live in Slough, Berkshire. Claudia funds her upmarket lifestyle by impersonating Disney princesses, including Frozen’s Elsa and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.
Another contestant is Courtney Smith, 18, an ‘ Instagram influencer’ from Essex. Her profile shows her attending the Ascot Races, lounging at a spa in the town and showing off a new pair of Louboutins.
Another is Leah Fletcher, who has 14,000 followers on Instagram. She posted photographs f rom t he Windsor Races but appears to spend the bulk of her time in Staines (upon-Thames).
Optomen, the production company behind TV shows such as Great British Menu, has confirm ed that some of the characters don’t live anywhere near Ascot.
Viv King, owner of Ascot designer boutique Grace, and who herself is dripping in diamonds, refused to allow filming in her shop. ‘They came in and then kept phoning to see if I was interested in providing outfits for them to go to the Windsor Races,’ she says. ‘But I suggested that my stock was perhaps too tasteful and definitely not blingy enough judging by what they were looking for.’
One eyewitness told this paper that he saw show star Leah Fletcher, a popular Instagram ‘personality’, having a ‘row’ with another woman at Windsor Racecourse. She was being pulled away by her boyfriend and fellow contestant Henry Simmons, the son of a millionaire property tycoon from Harlow, Essex.
‘She was screaming expletives at the other girl and had to be “pulled away” by a male cast member after lunging at her. But even such bad behaviour may be less than it appears, as the crew made them repeat the row two or three times.
But he said that afterwards the cast were drinking beer and champagne, laughing and joking. ‘It was clear to me that it was a made-up argument to create drama for the show,’ the witness added.
Then there’s make-up artist Mia Sully. She has made a name for herself sharing her beauty tips to thousands of subscribers on YouTube. Her boyfriend is a familiar face to fans of the reality genre.
He’s Alfie Best who, with his millionaire father, starred in Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
His £ 70,000 BMW might meet with approving glances on the Wentworth Park Estate. Less so, perhaps, his £550,000 caravan.
She was screaming expletives at the other girl