Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags, Channel 4

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Why were any of us watching Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags last night, about the pop star's move from selling millions of tracks to stacks of vintage clothes? It was not because we need a lesson in the hardships of starting up a business - Allen bought all the stock out of her musical profits and her office was thick with roses. No, it was because the real intruded into a reality show: this was not car-crash TV - it was miscarriage TV.

Any rubberneckers waiting to be entertained would have been disappointed by last night's first episode: we had a promise of tragedy at the start, and the announcement of her pregnancy was trailed at the end, but there was distinctly little grief. Keep those hankies gripped tight, though: it's coming.

The overriding emotion was anger, as Allen's sister Sarah helped her get the business off the ground. Lily thinks Sarah is feckless, Sarah is resentful of Lily's free-spending, Lily dobs her brother in to their mother for playing a violent computer game, Lily storms out of a market-research session as Mary Portas puts on her grown-up face for the camera.

If that camera had not been intent on capturing the sororal conflict, it would have mined the much more interesting seam of Allen's own reasons for going into business. It was not that she was tired of fame, adoration, money and acclaim (as the awards scattered around her office announced); it was much subtler and sadder than this: she is sick of the pop star's peripatetic life. The shop for her, it seems, is an anchor, and it might as well be selling fish or fowl instead of frocks, as long as it keeps her in one place.

There is only the small matter of actually setting up and running the business to overcome, then. Luckily, Allen can employ Portas as a consultant and can hire a fashion luvvie as a brand manager, a woman who has been so immersed in the high-end rag trade that she can say, without irony, "I'm so post-burlesque." At one of her concerts, a fan praises Allen for being genuine, and in her tart and revealing lyrics, she teaches a valuable lesson about uncomfortable truths. With this programme, however, Allen's insulation from the rest of the world is painfully obvious, and her common touch disappears.

All the problems Allen faces when starting her shop are dull, the sort of fluff that can be overcome by throwing more money at it or having a therapeutic cry. The only reason to watch, therefore, is because you are jonesing for a celebrity tragedy, the sort of first-hand insight you can't get from Grazia.

Perhaps Allen's miscarriage - for which stay tuned - was a cruel deus ex machina, something awful appearing out of nowhere to turn a dull series into a can't-miss programme, viewers waiting, gawping for the tears and the trauma. Without the miscarriage, would Channel 4 have shown this, or would it have been relegated to its home for teen tedium, E4? Any compulsion to watch does not come from Allen's personality or business nous, but from the imminent tragedy - and that is inhumane.

Watch Lily Allen: From Riches to Rags on 4oD
Find Lily Allen's music from Amazon

Comments

1) Lily Allen didn't have a miscarriage, she had a pre-term delivery. Using the term miscarriage completely disregards how different and rather more upsetting it is as she was 6 months pregrant and therefore had to be give birth still to the still born baby. 2) Perhaps not everyone is waiting for tragedy to watch, but are genuinely interested in why she left music and what she is up to.

Whatever you think of Lily Allen, calling this 'miscarriage tv' really really? Only a man could write something so crass and offensive. I hope anyone who has suffered a miscarriage or gone through the horrific trauma of stillbirth posts their disgust.This reads like something you'd find in The Sun or The Mail. From the artsdesk I expect better, much better.

I think you may have put the cart of a distressing experience before the horse of a TV show exploiting it, Kate (yes, another man speaks). Last night at Leicester Square tube I heard three young folk discussing - a miscarriage - and it turned out to be talk of Lily Allen, a person whom they don't know. I don't doubt that she deserves our sympathy, but it seems to me, as to Josh, another case of the media exploiting a sensitive situation for its own OKish ends. And, no, I didn't watch - I have about as much interest in LA as I do in the royal newlyweds-to-be.

@kate - please don't misunderstand - I don't approve of it all, as I hope the review shows. Using the term 'miscarriage TV' is meant to convey how vile I find the exploitation of her loss. There is nothing approving at all here. @claire - thank you for the clarification; I was using 'miscarriage' in a broader, not technical, sense.

@David This is not media exploitation, this is a doc that unhappily coincided with the loss of Allen's pregnancy.

Josh I think your assessment that the shop could have been selling anything is unfair. Lily Allen is known for a personal style which was highly influential on both the high fashion and street fashion world, and which revolved around vintage frocks worn in a modern context - so the basic idea of the store made absolute sense for her to be pursuing. It was extremely interesting watching it dawning on her that a good idea alone was not enough, though, and that she couldn't leave her popstar persona and media attention behind...

Josh you are not right in the head and I do not agree with your comments about this show one bit. It was a great show and as Claire says maybe people are genuinely interested in what Lily is up to. Airing this after what happened to her during the filming is a brave thing to do as it is naturally going to upset her. I respect her massively, giving birth to an dead baby must be the worst thing anyone could ever have to do. I can’t wait to watch the series and I hope her new business kicks off I really do.

@Ellie, 'not media exploitation'? Not of Allen, perhaps, but of the audience, with all the getting-off on the sadness of someone they don't even know that entails. Are you telling me, though, that this programme was planned before the miscarriage? @Sam, 'not right in the head' - that's about as right-on as the miscarriage remarks. Think before you attack.

@sam - I have often been told I'm not right in the head, so you're spot on. You can see the series as brave, or you can see it as exploitative, and we clearly fall on different sides of that. @Edgar - I didn't mean Allen was expert in clothes - what I meant was that she wanted to settle down somewhere and it just happened that that meant a clothes shop.

@Edgar - wasn't, rather.