CV Burp!
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Welcome to the latest addition to CM, a sideways
look at the road transport industry on telly, radio, papers and even t’interweb
This week promises to be a fine week for the world of trucking on the telly, with two of the leading women in transport making their TV debuts. As you read this, Nikki King, boss of Isuzu Trucks will have already made her dashing debut as Pauline on Channel 4’s Undercover Boss – while Hilary Devey will be making her Dragon’s Den debut on Sunday.
No preview tapes were available (to be honest, we didn’t ask), but some of the highlights of King’s appearance on Undercover Boss were leaked before the show aired.
In order to go undercover, King plays Pauline, a 63-year-old woman who has, because of a recent divorce, been forced to look at fulltime work after a number of years. I’m not being disparaging, but King must really have some acting chops because, let’s face it, she’s not the kind of woman you are going to forget.
“The production company put me up in some really terrible B&Bs,” she bemoans in the official press release. “The finest was over an Irish pub in Birmingham where the waitresses were topless. You stuck to the floor and the beds had a plastic mattress!” Sounds like fun, to be honest. Look out for the CV Show after party at this salubrious venue next year...
The show has also had an existential effect on King: “After two weeks as Pauline, I began to feel like Pauline,” says road transport’s finest method actor. “This made me think a great deal about who I would be if I was not CEO of Isuzu.”
We all have those thoughts Nikki. Who am I? Why are we here? What day is it? Why am I not watching Countdown?
Meanwhile, former Tibbet & Britten and TNT employee Hilary Devey is making her first appearance as a Dragon.
The most surprising thing about this wasn’t the entrepreneurial and publicity seeking behemoth that is Devey appearing on prime-time BBC, but the fact that Dragon’s Den is still on the telly. We thought it had been scrapped years ago, only to survive as endless repeats on Dave.
Alas no. It’s back with the BBC Two trailer giving all the Dragon’s a makeover as Goth-inspired kingmakers. Adding to the imagery is Devey’s choice of attire, with shoulder pads so large they could be mistaken for real dragon wings.
We’ll be watching keenly to see if Devey dispatches hapless hopefuls more swiftly than a pallet out of Coalville...