Doug Coutts’ TV Preview: Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty

TV Preview: Rachel Hunter’s Tour of Beauty | TV1, 8.00 Wednesday

A PERSONAL VIEW
By Doug Coutts

If you were a television producer carting arguably the most famous New Zealand model around the world and getting her to read your execrable narration scripts to cover lengthy cycling shots, wouldn’t you make sure she pronounces the word ‘women’ correctly? I know I would.

It could be that over at Imagination Television they’re unaware how ‘women’ is pronounced themselves. I guess if you’re busy dragging out tired old formats and searching for a famous name to link them with, you might not have time to bother with little things like that.

The trouble is there’s not much else going on. Rachie says right at the start that she’s “embarking on a journey around the world to discover the secrets of lasting beauty” but it soon becomes apparent that’s like saying the Rugby World Cup is an in-depth look at soil science and turf management.

Fashion, particularly women’s fashion, has always been about bullshit and over-priced bullshit at that (says he who gets his nose hairs caught up in the zipper of his ten-year-old Hallensteins pullover on a regular basis).

Rachel, or the emperor’s new tailor she’s chatting with, asks us to believe that powdered grapevine will prevent wrinkles and cellulite (perhaps if you smoke enough of it you won’t notice) and then that the water in the hot tub she’s just climbed into is detoxifying as we watch.

French people (they feature in this first episode – let’s hope Rachel doesn’t do a number on Featherston) may well be chic and gorgeous because they eat lots of cheese and drink claret, but no evidence was presented here either way. And despite Rachel making her very own fragrance in a Parisian parfumerie, the lingering smell is of junket.

Oh yeah – wimmen. That’s how ‘women’ is pronounced. Pass it on, and pass Tour of Beauty by.

What other critics say:

“It’s something of an unintentional comedy. Riding about on an old-fashioned bicyle in order to show off her shapely pins, our Rach visits fashionable parts of Paris, films fashionable people and extrapolates out from this that all French people are stylish. She interviews assorted beautiful French people, and says- ‘My God! You’re so beautiful. And so French!’ This, of course, is like proclaiming every New Zealander a stylishly dishevelled urban hipster after spending 20 minutes in Ponsonby.” — Sunday Star Times.

“It feels unfocused and rambling and Hunter doesn’t really tackle any tough questions. Do any anti-ageing products really work? How do French women find time to put on make-up and get their hair styled on a regular basis? Will a bag of grapes from Countdown work as well as grapes from Bordeaux? But she’s a warm and pleasant presenter and it’s an easy, reasonably entertaining watch.” — The Dominion Post.

“Former international supermodel Hunter is a charming host and the first episode, a visit to France, is entertaining. Look out for the interview with French model Isabelle Appay – still modelling in her 70s.” — Stuff.