Ladette to Lady - Episode 2
03 October 2006
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At the start of their second week at Finishing School seven ladettes are faced with a daunting challenge. On Saturday night a selection of eligible bachelors are coming to Eggleston Hall and the girls must cook them quail and pheasant ravioli; nine bird roast with dauphine potatoes; and sherry trifle and langues du chat. Under the fearsome tutelage of cookery teacher Rosemary Shrager, the girls – none of whom can even cook scrambled eggs – have got just five days to master some of the hardest techniques in haut cuisine.By now the harshness of the old fashioned curriculum is beginning to bite and the ladettes are finding it hard to see the point of it all. Made to pluck and draw out the entrails of seven game birds 19 year old Essex hairdresser Frances Rowe is reduced to tears; and after a confrontation with Principal Gill Harbord she confesses that “she just wanted to knock her out”.Liz Brewer, Egglestone Hall’s etiquette teacher considers the forthcoming event: “The whole objective is to actually make yourself attractive and desirable to these young men that are coming to dinner.”“You’ve got to be sexy, but not obvious. Titillating but not tacky.”Assessing the girls, Liz quickly realises that this might be their biggest obstacle and the group are all packed off for a mini makeover in order to make themselves appear more presentable and feminine.Stunning nineteen year old Scouser Louise Porter is struggling to buckle down and take the discipline and her backchat has not gone unnoticed by the staff.To show the ladettes what can be achieved the staff invite back two star pupils to give them a pep talk. Hayley Brisland and Michelle King (winner and runner up of “Ladette to Lady” series one) used to be hardened ladettes; but for both of them Eggleston Hall was a life-changing experience. Michelle and Hayley inspire the ladettes to work harder at elocution, flower arranging and deportment and on Friday night they are rewarded with a night off. It’s a chance to show they can now be trusted to behave responsibly. Unfortunately they can’t.The girls gleefully whip off their aprons and head straight for the local pub. While most remain cool and collected, conscious that this is a test of their decorum, ladette Louise becomes utterly uncontrollable.Downing pints of lager, Louise quickly forgets herself and treats the rest of the pub to a display of shouting, swearing and football chanting that results in many of the regular clientele demanding refunds as they complain to the management about the disruption to their pleasant evening and
In the small village, the teachers soon hear of Louise’s misconduct and misdemeanours, and as a result she is punished. While the other girls mix and mingle with the eligible bachelors at the formal dinner, she is humiliated to be demoted to being the wine waitress, forbidden to talk to the other guests.
Pandemonium ensues in the kitchen but remarkably by the time the guests arrive the ladettes have pulled it together. The nine bird roast has come up trumps; the sherry trifle is edible; and even Louise has managed to serve wine all evening without touching a drop.
During the formal dinner, cookery teacher Rosemary Schrager is far from happy with the girl’s behaviour: “They are the hostesses but they’re just not doing anything at all, they’re just having a good time. The teacher’s are the guests this evening, we’ve been completely ignored.” She furiously adds: “It’s just as if they are at a party, and enjoying themselves, and I’m not amused.”
The standards of Eggleston Hall are unswervingly high and the following morning the ladettes face the ordeal of the weekly assessments. The staff soon reach a unanimous decision about who should be expelled.
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