Poverty porn

British poverty is normally a subject for comedy, rather than documentary. Scotland gave the world Rab C. Nesbitt with his string vest and indecipherable accent. Channel 4 had Shameless, the capers of a family ruled by drink and drugs. The BBC has now brought us the real thing: The Scheme (BBC1, Tuesday), a fly-on-the-wall portrayal of the lives of six families in a welfare ghetto in East Ayrshire. It was a smash hit in Scotland, where it was aired last year, and the BBC is now trying it on the rest of the country (with subtitles, naturally).

The characters look as if they were chosen for a Trainspotting sequel. We are introduced to Marvin, a recovering heroin addict who lives with his bull terrier, Bullet. Or did, until he was arrested and had to leave the dog with the new girlfriend. She grew lonely (and tired of his beating her) so she upped sticks. We have a surly teenager, Bryan — or did, until he was imprisoned for a racially aggravated incident in a local post office

The main characters are Gordon and Annie Cunningham, reformed alcoholics trying to ensure that their children don’t follow their example. The first episode opens with them persuading Kimberley, their daughter, to be back from a night out by 10 pm. She obeys, and later they chat about her evening. ‘Declan stood in, and started battering into Jamie,’ she says with a laugh. ‘I think Jamie broke his rib, ’cos he’s curling up in a ball, screaming.’ At just 15 years old, she finds such behaviour normal.