Slumming It with Kevin Cloud

BrianJD

on Channel 4 now... It's unbelievable how human beings can live like this. 1 million people living in 1 square mile. It's amazing viewing but i feel claustrophobic just watching it.

shivs

:(Have watched pretty much EVERY Grand Designs. K McClouds' passion for architecture made me want to start digging the back garden and building.

HOWEVER......having seen this, have now come to the conclusion that he's a bit of an arrogant twit.

BlaasForRafa

His Grand Tour of Europe series a few months ago was very good, worth watching if it comes on repeats on C4 or E4

BrianJD

shivs wrote: »

:(Have watched pretty much EVERY Grand Designs. K McClouds' passion for architecture made me want to start digging the back garden and building.

HOWEVER......having seen this, have now come to the conclusion that he's a bit of an arrogant twit.

This really is the first time after watching him and i thought he was very good. I don't know why you think he was arrogant.

More on tonight tho...

shivs

BrianJD wrote: »

This really is the first time after watching him and i thought he was very good. I don't know why you think he was arrogant.

More on tonight tho...

Lots of little things......asking his guide if living in a slum was 'right?!' Throwing the used hospital syringe back at the man who was searching through the rubbish. Telling his hosts that 'back in the UK, we would not prepare food on the floor, it would be considered unhygienic', yet these people invited him into their home and the mum was prepared to offer him her bed.....

I dunno, maybe it's me, but he seems a little disingenuous.

Catari Jaguar

I only saw the second episode tonight. It seemed to be very well put together, well researched and effective. I have always been fascinated with Indian culture and have spent some time in the slums of Kenya. It was very insightful to see the hardworking and resourceful people, the vibrancy, humanity and hub of the community in Dharavi.

I thought Kevin's interviews to the developers were very direct and pressing. I didn't get much of an arrogant vibe from him, but he was a little foot in mouthish. Anyways he seemed very touched in the end and obviously wants to make a difference.

I'm really excited about going to visit there sometime.

ncmc

shivs wrote: »

Lots of little things......asking his guide if living in a slum was 'right?!' Throwing the used hospital syringe back at the man who was searching through the rubbish. Telling his hosts that 'back in the UK, we would not prepare food on the floor, it would be considered unhygienic', yet these people invited him into their home and the mum was prepared to offer him her bed.....

I dunno, maybe it's me, but he seems a little disingenuous.

Funny, I thought he came across very well in this show. At the start I was expecting a posh twit, fish out of water program, but I really empathised with him all the way through it. I think him saying things like above were just a normal Western reaction to being in a place like that, I think he spent the whole first week in a state of shock! At least he was honest, I think it would have been more patronising if he had been extolling the virtues of living like that. Lets be honest, when you are used to a Western way of life, living in a slum does seem wrong, preparing food on the floor is unhygienic. I was impressed that he told it like it is. Oh, and I think throwing the syringe back was done in a jokey way .

All in all, I really enjoyed this show. I had such a range of emotions watching it from thinking the whole place should be razed at the start to thinking that there is a lot of good stuff there to work with at the end. The though of all those people being rehomed in ****ty tower blocks, is just a terrible thought.

Well done Channel 4 and Kevin McCloud for opening my mind to a different culture and different way of life!

stag39

The fact that there is no Crime there is probably due to the community spirit, and i hope that they improve the sewage, water supply, housing standard and throughways....rather than demolishing it-leading to crime.!

loved the show by the way.