How the Other Half Live - C4 at 9

I wanted to watch this but MrH is watching a film.

Teh difference in price between leather and normal sofas is neglibable surely? actually I kind of associate leather sofas with "poor" people (awful thing to say, cant think of a better word) although i actually have them myself as I was forced to comprimise with leather loving hubby.

I'm watching. It feels a bit patronising and uncomfortable but it's gripping viewing.

I'm surprisingly quite moved. I'm also horrified that what are relatively small amounts of money (especially if you are wealthy) can make such a difference.

I said the same thing. £3500 cleared her debt! My CC debt is more. I liked both families.

The leather sofas looked knackered to me- they were covered in throws which suggests they were past their best. The looks on the girls' faces when they were shown their newly refurbished rooms was fab- such a small thing yet made a huge difference to them.

Just watching now on +1. The idea seems quite crass and patronising (just writing them a cheque) but the families seem nice and genuine and it doesn't come across as too 'wife swap' so far.

The 'rich' young girl seems quite nice even if she does think 'the poor' live in wooden houses ?

I'm watching on 4+1 as well. That little girl has a beautiful Zimbabwean accent ?

What lovely, lovely children. I think the programme has been incredibly well thought out and executed.

I found all the locks on the front door a telling example of how difficult a situation they're in. I also agree with whoever said the leather sofas look knackered.

Sharon has a really beautiful face when she smiles and you really get the impression that she genuinely takes her children but, from experience, it is an absolute battle to keep your head up and strive to make things better when all odds are against you.

x

Surely it should be "other half LIVES"? Sort it out, C4!

Mr R-A just said the same thing Soph ? Or, he says, it should be 'how the other halves live'.

Anyway, I was a bit ? at the end of the programme, pretty moving actually.

I think it's a series?

Can I just point out that you can buy a knackered up leather sofa from a charity shop for about £40, or (as she was in debt) perhaps it was from a catalogue. I think the fact that her kids had broken beds and no furniture that was more telling, they also had no toys if you look closely.

Surely this depends on what we're talking about half of? "One half" is obviously singular but verbs for fractions take their colour from the underlying stuff- if it's half of something countable it's plural, if it's half of something non-countable it's singular ("half the cakes were left on the plate", "half the cake was left on the plate").

If the title is "How the other half [of people in Britain] live", it's right as it is. However, if it's "the other half [of the population]" then I agree the verb should be singular- people are countable, population isn't.

Re the programme itself, I'm afraid this sort of thing makes me cringe. I'm all for television exposing poverty in Britain and I'm all for individual people being helped out of desperate situations, but to combine the two seems completely distasteful to me, a sort of charity porn.

I agree, but the phrase is "how the other half lives".

"In its full form the proverb is 'One half of the world does not know how the other half lives'. Its earliest appearance in English is dated to 1607 but it is found in French in Rabelais' Pantagruel in 1532. More recently, it gained currency as the title of a book (1890) by Jacob Riis. It is now most commonly used as a jocular or envious comment on the lifestyle of the wealthy, though originally the other half was the poor."

Ah- you learn something new every day. I hadn't realised it was a specific quotation ?