Latest news with #RexAdams
Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Faking It review: Surrey posho turns Bolton trader — and it's loveable fun
Another day, another telly reboot. Are there no new ideas around? Still, if there is one thing to turn the frown of the modern-day TV viewer upside down it's the sight of Rex Adams, a floppy-haired, almost impossibly posh Surrey estate agent, trying to say the words 'big bad bastard' in a Bolton accent as he sought to pass himself off as a northern market trader. The Channel 4 Noughties format Faking It has been nicely dusted down by 5 even if at first it felt as if the producers had taken the show's go-to subject of plummy person tries something working class to rather heavy-handed extremes. 'I'm going to some place up north called Bolton,' Rex told his friend 'Annie, darling' in a Battersea wine bar called aspen & meursault, which is so well heeled it doesn't need capital letters. 'Where's Bolton?' brayed Annie, who, it had been established, had last seen Rex 'at the polo'. Was Rex real or a central casting hire? Perhaps he was a reincarnation of Tomothy, the brother of Jack Whitehall's well-off dimwit JP in the university sitcom Fresh Meat, only even more staggeringly high-born. Either way, Rex was prime meat for the show that has always played to the nation's social obsessions with its My Fair Lady twist. Although here the rain did not fall mainly on the plain but on poor old Rex's head. Bolton, he soon discovered, wasn't the 'really cute, quintessential lovely little town' promised by Annie darling, but a rainy grey battlefield for tough men and women like Tony, the bullet-headed, broad-shouldered Bolton trader who naturally had his doubts about Rex. 'Bit foppy, bit soppy,' said Tony, who was none too impressed with Rex's packaging of meat: there were 'more wrinkles in that than my granny's stocking'. Rex dropped his first set of chicken legs on the floor and confessed to being puzzled when people asked for everyone's dinner orders, when of course they meant lunch. The smirks from everyone around him were telling. But Rex was deeply likeable, game and ready to learn, and his mentors — Tony, his workmate Elliot (another lovely bloke) and the Ilford trader Tom Skinner, who had a grin broader than the Dartford tunnel — couldn't help warming to him. While this show seemed more interested in the comic set pieces than in getting under the skins of the participants in the way the Channel 4 original managed, it was the decency of everyone involved that carried the day. Rex's mentors really did teach him something because he passed the test (which took place in Barnsley) in front of a panel of three experts, which seemed extraordinary given how his accent earlier veered from Yorkshire to Durham to, the obviously well-travelled Tony noted, Sumatra. Selling most of his meat when it mattered probably helped, as did his new name, Rob ('Rob on the job,' according to Tony; 'Rob the knob,' said an offscreen heckle). Some temporary tattoos and a short haircut completed the look that, in Elliot's estimation, made him 'one of us … a normal lad'. Being a class-conscious country hasn't done us many favours over the centuries, but the sheer kindness and warmth of British people can be cheering. And it certainly made this work. Like Rex's steaks, I'm sold.★★★★☆ Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix, the best Prime Video TV shows, the best Disney+ shows , the best Apple TV+ shows, the best shows on BBC iPlayer , the best shows on Sky and Now, the best shows on ITVX, the best shows on Channel 4 streaming, the best shows on Paramount+ and our favourite hidden gem TV shows. Don't forget to check our critics' choices to what to watch this week and browse our comprehensive TV guide
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bolton Market trader bags a starring role in new series of hit TV show
Bolton Market has bagged a starring role in the series Faking It which returns to our screens this month. The reality show first aired on Channel 4 and is now back for a new series - which has on a new home on 5. The basic premise is that brave volunteer will agree to be plunged into a very different world and asked to master a new skill in the hopes that in just four weeks, they will be able to pass themselves off as the genuine MORE: Bolton named 10th most 'quintessential' market town in UK 'One in 10 million' orange lobster making waves at Bolton Market In the first episode, posh Surrey estate agent Rex Adams - who sells multi-million pound properties across London - finds out if he can cut it as a meat trader. He gets his first introduction to the trade at Bolton Market, where he tries to blend in on seasoned traders Tony Frame and Elliot's hectic meat and fish stall. Even if Rex can master the trade, his accent and haircut could be a giveaway, so he also receives a makeover and lessons from a dialect coach. Then he's put to the ultimate test – running a meat stall solo at Barnsley Market. The series airs at 9pm on May 20. It is not the first time Bolton has taken centre stage on TV, with the town forming the backdrop to primetime dramas, hit comedies and much more. Locations like Victoria Square and Le Mans Crescent continue to be popular go to locations for some of the biggest series, leading the town to be term 'Hollywood of the North'. Peaky Blinders, Fool Me Once as well as Coronation Street have been shot in Bolton, with The Talamasca, part of the Anne Rice series, currently being filmed in the town as well as locations across the North West. The Talamasca follows a secret society which is responsible for tracking and containing witches, vampires, werewolves and other creatures scattered around the globe. Filming for the series started in autumn last year, and the Crescent was transformed into a mock-up of a London station.
