THE moment when ten of Britain's most notorious tomboys descended on a sleepy country village is to be aired on television tonight.

Eggleston Hall, in Teesdale, County Durham, is the location for a new reality TV show which is being screened on ITV.

Ladette to Lady, has taken 10 hard-drinking, loud-mouthed girls and placed them at Eggleston Hall - a former finishing school - with the aim of turning them into society debutantes.

The show was filmed in Teesdale in April 2004 by RDF Media the company behind reality shows Wife Swap and Faking It.

Tasks given to the girls include passing themselves off at a dinner dance and country house weekend, cooking for a cordon bleu dinner party and wine tasting in a bid to ditch their boozy, loud image.

During a break from their training, the girls were treated to a night at the Raby Arms pub in nearby Barnard Castle.

All the training seemed to be forgotten however, as the girls challenged local men to drinking games.

Abi Harrison, 23, from Barnard Castle, was in the pub when the girls arrived.

She said: "They'd been for a meal in the pub and then came back through to the bar and started playing drinking games with some of the local lads.

"They were downing tequilas and other shots and I think they beat the lads."

The show hit the headlines last year when it was revealed that one of the contestants was Jemma Gunning, from Somerset, who was sentenced to eight months in jail in August 2003 for baring her breasts in a Faliraki nightclub.

Jemma, who was 18 at the time, was eventually released after her parents paid an £1,800 fine.

However, her stay on the show is short-lived when she is booted off after one week for refusing to wear a dress.

Eggleston Hall, is the family home of Sir William Gray and his wife Lady Juliet.