Gill Harbord ('Ladette To Lady')

Ladette To Lady hits our screens once again this week with a batch of new rude, raucous, and raunchy girls. This time around, Eggleston Hall Finishing School is welcoming eight of Australia's worst-behaved women to undergo a strict five-week course in a bid to get their manners into shape. Leading the pack of brave ladies attempting to transform the ladettes is resident headmistress Gill Harbord. Putting on our poshest accent, we gave the lady herself a call to find out what we can expect from the new series.

What can we expect from this year's ladettes?
"To begin with, you can expect them to be loud, raucous, drunk.. you name it - they'll produce it. The Australian girls were a lot easier in many ways to teach than the English girls - I think it's probably the way their life is led - they seem to be up for a challenge at any time. They really were terrifically game."

What skills do you teach the girls?
"I teach them how to arrange flowers, how to make wedding bouquets - all that sort of thing. And I'm also their principal. So if anyone does anything terrifically wrong or if there is a problem, then I will see these girls on a one-to-one basis and talk through [things]. It's at those times that you get a huge insight into what they've been through. And probably at that time you get the reason - or very often often you do - for them being ladettes."

Why do you think flower arranging is an important skill for the girls to learn?
"Well, in any lifestyle you use lots of sidelines. I have taught flower-arranging at finishing schools all my life and I have also earned a lot of money through doing people's weddings, decorating parties - all that sort of thing. And it gives a non-academic girl a very good insight into whether she could succeed at something that's on the arts side."

Do you ever meet a ladette and think, 'It just isn't possible to change you'?
"Initially when you look at them in a bunch, you think, 'Gosh, this is going to be a hard one to crack' but once they're divided up, they lose that strength. Once you divide them, you normally can find something to talk about and you build a relationship with them. And then they begin to see, as time goes on, that you actually are trying to help them. Once they realise you're genuine, then you have have very few problems. I enjoy it when I can improve a girl's life."

Were there any events this series that particularly shocked you?
"Not really. When you've taught girls all your life, very little does shock you. Nowadays the awful part is that if they're so drunk they can't stand up, that's what you see on a Saturday night in any big city anywhere. So really, anything they do is just the same as you see anywhere else."

What about when Nicole was balancing CDs around her nipples?
"Yes, well. I think that, in a way, was them trying to get a little bit of one upmanship between themselves and trying to shock each other. And also, I suppose, she wasn't hiding the fact that she's a pole dancer and at that point in her life, she was very much involved in it because it was how she earned a living. She has stopped pole-dancing but she has found it extremely difficult to get a job and that of course, in the economic climate, is very hard. But she's re-trained as a horticulturalist - so the message does get through."

There were rumours about a show focusing on men. Has anything come to light?
"No, it hasn't as yet - but you never know."

Is it something that you'd be interested in?
"Me, personally? No. I am not equipped to deal with young men - I don't know how they think and I think it would need far more boot camp than I would want to produce to get them to toe the line. I think that's a very difficult one - it needs to be thought out. I'm sure there is a place for it. When we were in Australia, it was interesting to see how many young men between the ages of 20 and 30 would come up to us, even in the streets, and say, 'You're doing a great job - keep it up.' And other chaps would say to us, 'We wish our girlfriends would allow us to let them through the door before us' and we were absolutely amazed by that."

Have you thought about doing a celebrity edition?
"No, I haven't - because I don't think I'm equipped for that, either. I'm not as old-fashioned as I appear on the television programme, but equally, I don't think that would be my thing. Oh, there are quite a few famous women who could be taught a thing or two, but I'm certainly not naming any names. On the reverse, there are people like... well, older celebs such as Judi Dench. All that sort of person - they are amazing and they really do do their profession and the female sex great justice."

The new series of Ladette To Lady begins tonight at 9pm on ITV1.