the Roses

FORGET Upstairs Downstairs, Channel 4's latest reality TV offering Masters and Servants got a little too real for the Rose family from Warrington when they were paired up with the 'family from hell'.

For the programme, Christine Rose, her husband Malcolm and their eight children, of Old Liverpool Road, played host to the Mills family, from the East Midlands.

The plan was for them to spend a week working as servants for the Roses in their home - making meals, cleaning, shopping, ironing and undertaking all manner of undesirable tasks.

The following week, Christine and her family would swap roles and don the aprons at the Mills' home.

But what should have been a fortnight-long social experiment ended in a disaster, as the two families clashed from the word go and the swap was eventually cut short.

Christine recalls a catalogue of disasters, the culmination of which was when her front room went up in smoke after candles were left unattended.

Since the programme, she says she's had to fork out for a new carpet and now says that the best thing about her experience was when the two sparring families were separated.

The production crew were even forced to intervene after the Roses worked solidly for 12 hours without breaks and the situation began to get out of hand.

Christine said: "They could tell things were about to blow and said they'd have to call a halt to it, but I told them they were too late, we'd already resigned.

"When they were working for me I sacked them twice, but the producers eventually talked us round to giving it another go. It was clear right from the start they just didn't want to take part."

She added: "The whole thing from beginning to end was one big nightmare. That's the long and short of it. We were really looking forward to it but the entire experience was ruined for us."