Tonight, Channel 4 viewers will see 29 year-old mother of three, Jatinder Sumal attempt to "fake it" as a showbiz TV reporter in the latest instalment of the award-winning Faking It documentary. What viewers may not see, however, is the behind-the-scenes coaching given by, Glenn Kinsey and his team.
The series is a transformational battle against the odds. Individuals are plucked from their natural habitat and, with the help of expert tuition, given four weeks to master a skill well enough to fool a group of expert judges.
Previous programmes have featured the likes of punk rocker to classical conductor, solicitor to Garage MC and Navy officer to drag queen!
Worried
During last summer's filming of the programme, concerned producers called us in after they became increasingly worried that Jatinder, who works in her family's Glasgow newsagents, may not be able to convincingly fool the expert judges, despite help and training from her "mentors" consisting of two BBC presenters - Claudia Winkleman and Alex Stanger - and Mirror newspaper editor, Piers Morgan.
The turning point was coaching from Glenn Kinsey
Transformation
Claudia recommended that the team contact Glenn, the UK's most successful presenter trainer - and credited with starting or transforming the careers of several hundred TV reporters and presenters - who put a nervous Jatinder through an intensive day's coaching at our Westminster studios, resulting in a transformation later described by producers as "the turning point".
And tonight, viewers will see her fool every single celebrity judge - including TV executive, Janet Street-Porter and presenter, Kate Thornton - who all thought one of the three professional presenter "decoys" was the "faker"!
Live interview
Jatinder's "test" was the delivery of a live report to camera in front of millions of viewers on GMTV's Entertainment Today before conducting a celebrity interview with pop duo, The Appletons.
And, minutes after hearing that not one of the judges had spotted her, she called Glenn to say, "I couldn't have done it without your help!"
I couldn't have done it without your help!
Training
Our training mirrored the eventual "test", with coaching in everything from using an earpiece to interview technique, with the main focus on bolstering Jatinder's on-screen confidence and charisma.
In addition, to enhance the "illusion" of a seasoned pro for her upcoming "test", our team provided much help in ensuring that Jatinder knew how to "interact" with the crew.
Practical exercises included studio presentations and interviews as well as the setting up of a live link to Westminster's Abingdon Green, where Jatinder took questions from our studio "presenter" before conducting several interviews in front of The Houses of Parliament.
And, ironically, the co-host of GMTV's Entertainment Today and the presenter who linked to Jatinder during her actual TV "test" was one of Glenn Kinsey's past trainees, Ben Shephard who started his career on one of our TV presenter courses.
Congratulations to Jatinder and her mentors from all of us here!
*Faking It is an RDF Media production for Channel 4.
