Britain's Next Top Model is a reality TV series, based on the US show America's Next Top Model. The US show is in its 6th season and an Australian version is in its 2nd season. Episodes from all these series are shown on Living TV (Sky channel 112, 6pm, every night), with additional programs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and at weekends (times vary). The best way to see what the series is about is to watch a few of the episodes. In each weekly episode the girls undertake some kind of modelling assignments. The girl with the weakest performance each week is eliminated, and the winning girl left at the end of the series wins a bunch of modelling contracts. The 5th UK series is currently showing on Living TV (Sky channel 112). Episodes are first screened on Monday night 9pm, and repeated at various times through the week. Below are a few screenshots, and some commentary, from the first two UK series...

Britain's Next Top Model Series 2 - Week 1 The photoshoot in the first week was in bikinis, and took place in snow in the Milton Keynes SnowZone, at a temperature of minus 5 degrees. Everyone was well wrapped up, except the girl modelling, who was freezing. The show is not won simply on the basis of appearance, but much more on personality issues. This was very evident in the first episode with the photoshoot in the snow. Several girls were not too happy. While one girl managed to produce a glowing photo, despite the conditions.

The first show also introduced the various girls. This is contestant Amber Niemann, 19, from Cardiff. Amber was very nice looking, and also tall, and "looked like a model". She remained with the show until week 8. Her weakness was she relied too much simply on her looks to get her through. She was criticised for not wanting to win badly enough, and for only having a limited range of expressions. A phrase that was used frequently about her, and about several other girls was "the lights are on but there's no-one at home".

And this is Lianna Fowler, 18, from Derby, the eventual winner of the competition. From the first episode. Lianna reminded us a bit of a girl called Ines de la Fressange, who was the muse of Karl Lagerfeld, and the face of Chanel during the 80's. She has some very good facial looks. The competition was very difficult for Lianna. She didn't get along with any of the other girls in the house, and they were continaully bitching against her. In one of the episodes (which involved an interview), the interviewer suggested that the bitching from the other girls was because they regarded Lianna as a very serious contender.

Series 2 - Week 2 The main task in week 2 was a girl-on-girl photoshoot, in pairs.

Series 2 - Week 5 Week 5's photo assignment took place in a church, in the night, and had a "Gothic Bride" theme. Only 2 or 3 girls managed to produce good pictures. This pic shows Lianna, who excelled at this theme. She has edgy angular facial features, and she entered into the spirit of the theme. This shot is the top part of a very striking full length photo.

Series 2 - Week 7 The main photo assignment in week 7 was a "Country Life" look, taken on location on a farm.

Series 2 - Week 10 For weeks 9 and 10, the final 4 girls were taken to Morocco for a location photo shoot. The final task was a catwalk show, and came down to a contest between Lianna Fowler (the brunette) and Abigail Clancy (blonde).

In the final appraisal the judges also looked back through the girls' photo shoots. Abigail had several pics which were described as "good". One of her best shots was this one, leaning against a car. Abigail seemed like the sort of girl that you typically see in the weekly lags mags every week. These girls are all capable of producing fairly nice run-of-the-mill pictures week on week. But really, they are all very bland. If you look at some of our lads mags reviews, we're often criticising soap actresses and Big-Brother girls, who often appear in the lads mags, because their pictures are so bland.

Two or three of the pictures Lianna had produced during the series were very striking (the "Gothic Bride" photo, shown above, is another example). Lianna is the sort of girl who is capable of producing a striking and memorable picture, and is probably the girl who many photographers would prefer to work with.

Lianna's portfolio, possibly with other things, seemed to make the difference. Lianna was declared "Britain's Next Top Model" for Series 2.

Part of Lianne's prize was a cover shoot, and fashion spread, for Company magazine. She looks a bit different in this picture, with long hair.

Series 1 - Week 1 Here are a few screenshots from Series 1. The first episode showed the 12 selected girls arriving in London. Before they could unpack their bags, they were required to do an immediate catwalk show in a London street. They were given 15 minutes before the show to do their own make-up.

Series 1 - Week 2 The assignment in the 2nd week involved a 5.15am call to make the long journey to a location photo shoot on the Isle of Wight. This was done in very chilly weather. Like the snow photos in series 2, everyone was well wrapped up (except the girl modelling), and some girls were very unhappy about the conditions. Despite the conditions, and their protests, some girls did manage to produce pictures which made them look as though they were enjoying themselves.

Series 1 - Week 4 In week 4, the girls had do a commercial for a shower gel. This involved taking a shower, outdoors. This was a more difficult assignment than the outdoor shoot in week 2. Apparently the water was very cold. There was a big variation in the resulting pictures. Only a couple of girls produced pictures that made them look as though they were enjoying it.

Series 1 - Week 9 The two assignments in week 9 were the most challenging of the series. In the first assignment, the girls were required to pose nude, with a male model.

The second assignment was a live catwalk show, at Versace, in Milan.

The girl judged to be "Britain's Next Top Model" was Lucy (also shown in the 2 pics just above). Lucy didn't win because she tried harder than the other girls, or because she was better looking. She was criticised many times throughout the series for giving the impression that she was taking it easy. In none of the evictions had Lucy's looks been a deciding factor. It's probably more correct to say that all the other girls lost the competition. Of the other 11 girls, two were evicted in week 8 for physical reasons - one was too short and the other too curvy. The remaining 9 girls all seem to have been evicted for reasons of personality and attitude.

The Importance of Personality None of the girls selected as finalists for Britain's Next Top Model are classic beauties. Some of the girls seem quite plain. An important factor which seems to determine which girls are are dropped each week is whether the pictures the girl does each week are lifeless or sparkle. Whether a picture sparkles doesn't depend on the girl's looks, but how the girl is reacting to the photo sessions. It's all in the mind. "Personality" involves all the things about a model that are not part of her physical appearance. You could see personality in action in the first 10 minutes of the first show. When asked to do the immediate catwalk show in the London street, some girls were clearly annoyed, and it showed in their performance. In the 2nd show, girls had a 5am call to go to a location photo shoot 80 miles away. The location shoot in cold weather was very revealing. Some girls looked as though they didn't want to be there. All the finalists were thrilled to be selected for the show, and all those evicted are gutted. But the wish to be a model sometimes doesn't translate itself into action. You can understand why girls might not like getting up early for a photo shoot a long way away, or why they might not like working in uncomfortable conditions, but those are some of the things that are making the difference between success and failure. When we do the Simply-Gorgeous PhotoShoots we can see a lot of similar factors involved, and they can make the difference between pictures that are average and pictures that are outstanding. We like to do outdoor pics, if we can. Girls get a completely free choice about what pics they do. Doing outdoor pictures adds variety and interest to a girl's portfolio. There are some girls who are willing to do outdoor pics even in February, and there are some girls who only want to do indoor pics, even in June. We occasionally find girls who write in during the Summer, and then spend maybe a couple of months thinking about whether they want to do a photo shoot, then when it's late in the year, they decide they do want to have a go, by which time they've missed all the best weather. We have had girls who first wrote in in February, and it was November when decided they wanted to do some pictures. And we've seen several cases like that. And we like to do shower pics too, if we can. Again, girls get a completely free choice, but it adds another dimension to their portfolio if they do. Some girls say "I really want to do something like that, I'll do it". Other girls will say "it's very chilly today, I might come another time when it's warmer". All the girls who do the Simply-Gorgeous PhotoShoots get the same opportunities, and they all get some decent pics that they can send off to ZOO, or wherever they want to. Some girls walk away with a handful of decent pics. But others, who might not necessarily be the best looking, walk away with literally hundreds of very impressive pictures, and the difference is because of personality and attitude.