Channel 4’s Handcuffed promised to put together people from all walks of life, handcuffing stranger together 24 hours a day for as long as they can last.
Handcuffed previously made headlines for their pairing of a self-professed prudish woman and a gay adult content creator, as well as a feminist and a self-described ‘alpha male’.
The newest episode of the Channel 4 show however goes even further, pairing up a black youth social worker and a former Reform MP candidate who was exposed for making horrifically racist comments.
Chris, 38, is a youth worker from London, whilst Bob, 70, from Yorkshire is a retired solicitor and was an MP candidate in Barnsley North.
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Early on in the episode Chris notes that Bob appears to be avoiding any discussions about himself, complaining that they might leave the experiment without having learned a thing about each other.
This all changes however when Chris brings the former solicitor to his home, with his nan Muriel saying that she recognises him off the TV.
The youth worker proceeds to google his name and finds out that Bob, whose full name is Robert Lomas, was dropped as a candidate by Reform due to racist comments he posted on Facebook.
At the time of the news breaking Lomas was predicted to win the Barnsley North seat with 99% certainty, though Reform distanced themselves from him.
Lomas and two other candidates were dropped after racist posts emerged, with Nigel Farage saying on Question Time: “I want nothing to do with them.”
Upon finding this out there is a tense moment between the two, with Chris realising what Bob had posted in the past.
The former solicitor had posted on Facebook saying that black people need to ‘get off their lazy arses’ and called them savages.
Bob tries to defend this by saying it was posted after he had witnessed riots in London, claiming that he is ‘not a racist’, however Chris is left visibly uncomfortable.
He says: “I’m actually quite disgusted. Just saying ‘black’ I group underneath that… I don’t deal with racists.”
Chris goes on to ask Bob: “In your eyes am I less than you?”
Later in the episode he brings the former MP candidate along to meet some of the young people he works with, hoping that Bob will listen to them and change his views. Instead however the 70-year-old proceeds to interrupt Chris and tell the young men all about his life.
Ultimately though Chris is able to make a breakthrough, opening up to Bob about how he had been pressured into dealing drugs due to his poor financial position as a young person.
He then turned his life around and at 25 he became the youngest black man to ever receive an OBE.
The 70-year-old says he has ‘never’ known anyone to have such awful trauma and admires the 38-year-old for turning his life around and dedicating his life to helping others.
This facilitates Bob later opening up to Chris, explaining that he left home at 15 due to his abusive parents and ‘would have left home at nine if he could’.
Despite the uncomfortable start, Chris ends up saying: “It’s quite nice to see that side of Bob. It gave me a little bit more insight on who Bob is. Throughout this journey I know that bit by bit bob is going to start to ease off a little bit and hopefully this continues.”
Handcuffed returns on Channel 4 next week, Monday 16 March.
Topics: Channel 4, TV and Film, TV, UK News
Michael Slavin