Trust Me, I'm A Teenager (C4)

Extreme Lives: Yukon Quest (BBC1)

Trust Me, I'm A Teenager is the son of Wife Swap, in which two wives switched places for a couple of weeks. This time, a family allows three teenagers they don't know to run their lives for them.

The Nevilles - dad David, mum Elizabeth, daughter Georgia, sons Simon and Jacob - didn't know what they'd let themselves in for. The au pair was given the week off, Mum was sent out to work and the youngest, Jacob, given a megaphone to make his voice heard in the household.

The family were not altogether willing guinea pigs. Who could blame them? Few could sit back and do everything they're told by a bunch of strangers, and teenagers at that. Fifteen-year-olds Sammie, Roi and Isha interviewed the Nevilles and watched a video of their home life in London's Hampstead before deciding how it could be improved.

They were given them a free hand to impose rules on the Neville household. The argumentative David and Elizabeth needed help, they decided, after 20 "loving but turbulent years". Student Simon, 18, slobs out of the big sofa and takes control of the TV remote control (which, as we all know, causes more arguments than anything in every home). Georgia, 14, is always complaining. Everyone tells Jacob what to do.

"We are quite a loud family," they admitted. I wouldn't argue with that, and getting them to shut up wasn't easy. The children were given a bell to press everytime their mother got bossy (most of the time). Georgia was told that every time she whinged, she'd have to stand on a disco mat wearing a pair of rabbit ears. Jacob used the megaphone every time he felt no one was listening to him.

The real problem was Simon. He began well enough, banging saucepans to get everyone out of bed in the morning. Giving up the sofa and remote were more difficult, and eventually he simply refused to do anything. By the end of the first week, the rules had disintegrated.

More restrictions and punishments were handed out in the second week, with varying success. Elizabeth enjoyed working instead of staying at home. Everyone was pleased David was banned from telling bad jokes.

He was also made to tell Jacob the facts of life. "When did you and mum last have sex?," asked Jacob, followed by, "What's oral sex?". His embarrassed father looked as though he wished he could go back to telling bad jokes.

Trust Me is hardly a scientific experiment, but it's fun and enough home truths emerge from the silliness and stroppiness to make it worthwhile.

Debra Veal escapes life's stresses not by enlisting the help of teenagers, but by marathon boat trips. Yukon Quest followed her as she paddled her canoe in a 460-mile endurance race along Canada's Yukon River. The scenery was spectacular but, there not being anything particularly exciting about watching people paddling endlessly, the documentary flashed back to her crossing the Atlantic in a 24ft rowing boat. Two weeks into the trip, husband and fellow mariner Andrew gave up after becoming terrified of the ocean.

Ex-royal marine and jungle survival expert Bruce Parry was her partner in the Yukon race. "I know this is going to hurt," he said before setting out - but not as much as having a trio of teenagers telling you what to do.

Published: ??/??/2003