Essex Wives was a television documentary series about married women socialising together in Essex, England. It ran for a single series in 2002 and launched the career of Jodie Marsh.
Format
editThe ITV programme featured the daily lives of a number of women, including Jodie Marsh, which led to her subsequent career.[1] The show used the nickname golden triangle to describe the settlements of Chigwell, Buckhurst Hill and Loughton in the Epping Forest district upon which the series was centered. The area is well known for its high property prices and relative affluence of its residents compared to the national average.[1][2][3] Several properties are owned by professional footballers; their spouses, as well as others of a similar stature, have been referred to as WAGs by the tabloid press. They are relatively rich, but do not work regularly and chose to spend most of the day socialising instead.[1]
The programme featured stereotypical activities of these women, such as visiting Jacuzzis, nail bars, tanning, shopping at Prada or performing yoga. It was criticised for giving an inaccurate portrayal of Essex life; towns elsewhere in the county such as Halstead and Colchester or natural features such as the Colne Valley do not generally exhibit the behaviour seen on Essex Wives, including "white stilettos, shiny leatherette handbags or ankle chains".[4] The series pointed out that Chigwell has ten beauty salons and four nail bars, and said that some of the wives had decided to seek modelling jobs for their young children.[3]
References
edit- ^ a b c Vedrickas, Ginetta (19 December 2013). "Chigwell: a glamorous town that likes to flash its cash". Metro.
Chigwell will be familiar to many from the TV series Essex Wives, which focused on a group of women living in the so-called golden triangle (Loughton and Buckhurst Hill make up the other points on it) and launched the career of former glamour model Jodie Marsh.
- ^ Cooke, Rachel (26 July 2008). "Rachel Cooke on the uncertain future of reality TV". The Guardian.
...in 2002 when she appeared in the ITV documentary series Essex Wives. It was about rich, tanned women in the 'Golden Triangle' of Chigwell, Buckhurst Hill and Loughton.
- ^ a b GetReading (13 January 2003). "Hips, lips and balls". BerkshireLive.
THERE were a lot of loose ends left when the first series of Footballer's Wives (ITV1 Wednesday) concluded last year especially when it was not certain that another would be commissioned due to relatively poor ratings.
- ^ Morton, Cole (12 January 2003). "Focus: The joy of Essex: cash, flash and footballers' wives (oh, and some jolly nice countryside)". The Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2020.