THE BBC’S quest for ratings has opened up deep divisions in a tiny Nottinghamshire community which is preparing to take part in the latest reality television experiment.

The corporation has arranged for a mass exodus of the womenfolk of Harby to see how their men survive without them. Eighty of its 119 women are to be put up in a hotel for seven nights at the BBC’s expense while their husbands try to cope with everyday life.

But the show, The Week The Women Went has led to claims that the village will become a laughing stock.

Such is the depth of feeling in Harby that an extraordinary meeting of the parish council has been called to debate the issue. Paul Marshall, 48, a resident for the past 20 years, said the programme had already split the small community.

“I don’t think this kind of thing is what the BBC should be spending licence-payers’ money on. The village is deeply divided on what to do,” he said.

“This is going to be a tacky, tawdry programme that will do a lot of harm. I have seen this kind of TV and nobody comes out of it looking good.”

The controversy comes after recent criticism during the debate about the renewal of the BBC’s charter that it is neglecting its obligations as a public service broadcaster. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said that the BBC should not chase “ratings for ratings sake”.

While many of the women are eagerly looking forward to their seven days of freedom, some of the men are less than impressed. Their concerns have become so vocal that the village’s entire population has been invited to attend an emergency meeting of the parish council. Topping the agenda will be the widespread fear that Harby is about to endure a humiliating experience.

The BBC defended the series by describing it as “an intriguing social experiment designed to see how a community of men rises to the challenge of filling all the roles in village life”. Harby was selected because, despite a population of only 240 adults, it has a strong community spirit and amenities including a primary school, a pub, a post office and a shop.

Local opponents of the fly-on-the-wall project, however, are convinced that it can only harm the village’s reputation. Richard Croft, 44, the parish council chairman, said that next week’s extraordinary meeting would seek to gauge the strength of local opposition to the production.

He said: “The village is certainly divided over this and there has definitely been some bad feeling that was not there before the BBC came along. I have had quite a few people ringing me to complain and we are hoping the meeting will show what the feeling really is.”

Backers of the series claim that it has won overwhelming local support. Joanna Horbury, 30, landlady of the village pub, the Bottle And Glass, will be leaving Steve, her husband, with the care of Georgie, their 20-month-old daughter.

“I think one or two people on the parish council are worried that some residents may be upset, but no one has to take part if they don’t want to,” she said.

“We’ve thrown ourselves into the programme and are really looking forward to it. All the women I’ve spoken to can’t wait. I think any fears that it might be edited unfavourably or anything like that are unfounded.”

Kelly Webb-Lamb, the series producer, said: “The programme is about showing what happens when the women go away and the men are thrust into the domestic and community sphere. There are some households where the men are very involved but I think there are others where domestic chaos will ensue.”

Filming is due to start on April 10, with seven one-hour programmes due to be shown on BBC Three in August.

MANAGING ON THEIR OWN

Lysistrata, a play by Aristophanes (about 411BC)

After 21 years of war the women of Athens, led by Lysistrata, take matters into their own hands. Lysistrata suggests that every wife and mistress should refuse all sexual favours until peacetime. Before long this proves entirely effective, peace is concluded and the play ends with the festivities.

Herland, a novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1999)

On the eve of the First World War, an all-female society is discovered somewhere in the distant reaches of the Earth by three male explorers. This feminist Utopia is an 20th-century vehicle for Gilman’s then-unconventional views of male-female behaviour, motherhood, individuality, privacy, sense of community, sexuality, and many other topics.

Disappearance, a novel by Philip Wylie (1978)

At four minutes and fifty-two seconds past four on a February afternoon, the world shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women from men. After families and loved ones separate from one another, life continues in very different ways for men and women, boys and girls. An explosion of violence sweeps one world while social stability and peace break down in the other.

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