Bouncers

23 October 2013

Episode 1/6, Thursday 5th September, 10pm, Channel 4

This new series is an intimate and explosive portrait of Britain by night, seen through the eyes of the people best positioned to witness it first hand - door staff. 

Filmed in the North East and Essex, the six-part series shows that Britain is out to get smashed - old and young, rich and poor, and across cultures - and it doesn’t seem to care about the consequences. Puking, fighting and falling over, it’s all part of the great British night out - and it’s the door staff who are left to clean up the mess. But as well as some of the shocking and unsettling elements of our drinking culture, the series also features warm, insightful and funny stories that explore what’s behind people’s night-time behavior.

The door staff see it all; they are sober and wry observers, commentating and interpreting our weekend antics. Through them we take a jaw-dropping look at why Brits love getting so drunk and what makes us behave so badly. The series shows that working on the doors is more challenging than ever. It’s not just enforcing door policy. Meeting and greeting, administering first aid, being guidance counsellors, mediating in domestic rows… who knows what the night will bring?! And all the while revelers take their safety for granted.

We also follow the stories of punters on their nights out - from ‘pre-loading’ at home on cheap supermarket booze and high-octane drinks promotions in the city bars, to staggering home with a kebab – and everything in between. And, once the hangovers have cleared, their sober insights reveal why they behave as they do. Is it just about having a laugh...or are there other factors at play?

The first programme focuses on bouncers working in the port of Blyth, a former hub of Northumberland’s coal mining and shipbuilding industries that’s seen tough times. The Quay is a venue popular with late night drinkers. On the door are 44-year-old Shaun Scullion and 25-year-old Ben Taylor, who have twenty-five years’ experience between them. But they’re new to Blyth and Shaun’s zero tolerance approach, including everyone proving their age, is taking a few locals by surprise. “I’m there to do a job – to look after the safety of the bar patrons – I’m not there to be liked,” says Shaun. “If you look a bit intimidating that’s a good thing… cuts down on bad behavior. You have to use a certain level of force." Shaun has noticed a recent change in punters’ drinking. “The way people are coming out now and consuming so much alcohol in such a short space of time, it’s really changed,” he says. “A lot of people just want to try to get as smashed as they possibly can, and they’re not really bothered about the consequences.”

Twenty miles south of Blyth is Newcastle’s fashionable neighbourhood of Jesmond. Once home to footballers and popstars, the terraces along the main strip are now more likely to attract stag and hen do’s. On the door of Osbourne’s Bar for the last decade is former paratropper Jim Rennick, aka ‘Jesmond Jim’, who’s something of a local legend and popular with the regulars, especially the ladies. “People come from everywhere…there’s that much totty out, it’s unbelievable.  I’ve never seen so much false tan in my life,” says Jim. “It amazes me how many pints the girls drink… half the time the girls are pissed before they even get in the bar.” Jim and his his partner on the door Naz have to step in when tempers flare between two groups of women over who had a table first.

The programme also meets some of the punters on a night out. 26-year-old Paul and his friends save a few quid by ‘pre-loading’ at home in Blyth before they head out, as well as carrying on drinking after the bars shut at 3am. “I never think I should tone it down because where we live there’s nothing else to do,” says Paul. “If you want to spend your hard-earned money on going out and having a good time with your friends then go do it.”

Meanwhile Scott has been barred from Blyth’s pubs for a year thanks to the local pubwatch scheme after hitting someone with a glass in a fight. Now he’s putting his case to the pubwatch committee by apologizing for his actions and asking for a second chance.

Jim and Shaun, who’ve both been attacked and injured plenty of times over the years, know that whatever’s done to them, they can’t retaliate.“It’s definitely getting worse, especially the younger ones, and they know for a fact that you can’t touch them,” says Shaun. “The teacher can’t give them a back hander because they’d get suspended. To be quite honest they think they’re untouchable.”

Ex-paratrooper Jim isn’t about to do anything to jeopardise the job he loves. “What would you do if somebody spits in your face, it’s hard to just walk away. When you’re fighting men, when you’re proud men…the first thing you would do is knock them out,” he says. “If I hit him back; that’s my revenue gone. I’m fucked. So that’s the first thing I think about - ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it’.” But while Jim wouldn’t even contemplate packing in working on the doors, Shaun’s finding the anti-social hours and wages that haven’t risen in twenty years hard to stomach - so he’s qualifying as a social worker. “It’s not dissimilar to the role I’m doing at the minute,” he points out.