Chat Ed : Welcome to this evening's MASTERS AND SERVANTS chat with Christine and Malcolm Rose!
Christine Rose : Hello, it's Chris, Malcolm and the children here!
Malcolm Rose : Hello, we’re all here, ready to see what you have to say to us.
cazz : Sorry Rose family I thought you were right out of order and didn’t fulfil your end of the bargain. Have you watched the show and if so what do you think now looking back at it.
Christine Rose : Well, there was 96 hours footage made into a one hour programme which hasn't shown the true storyline, including the health and safety issues which we weren’t happy with and abusive behaviour and language.
phoenix : how do you think you've been portrayed?
Christine Rose : I think we've been portrayed as picky for no apparent reason. The real reasons have been cut from the programme. Firstly when the Mills were supposed to be servants and cleaning our house they actually only took part as family of 5 and not 7. There were only 5 servants The younger 2 children had a nanny. They continually ran about my house while filming was taking place and were not supervised at all times by the nanny provided. The 7-year-old child was continually swearing and I had to speak to production and ask them not to come into my house anymore and for them to be supervised by the nanny provided.
bod : Your husband was obsessed with the mantra that they 'treated you as slaves' when that was clearly not the case
Finfel : I think that you and your husband behaved disgracefully and did not even try at the mill's house
Christine Rose : Well obviously that's because 96 hours have been made into an hour of biased footage. We totally refused to even go to the Mills' house because we'd found that they had been in a pub 2 miles away when they were supposed to be cleaning our house. Susan didn't come into the house before 10:30am any day other than the first morning. Richard and Susan continually argued in front of camera. Richard continually told me Susan wasn't speaking to him and 'if she starts again, I'm on my way'.
Lachlan : How would you react if anyone spoke to you the way you initially spoke to them in their first few days as Servants you were not masterful, you were rude!?
Malcolm Rose : What you've got to realise is that we were playing a role as the master. There was that much edited and that much leading up to the initial briefing...Christine had been on the phone to me with all these problems and I had to come home from work because Susan would not do anything. It was Richard doing all the work all the time. Her excuse was that 'I've got 2 other kids to look after and I can't be doing this role as well as looking after 2 other kids'. I couldn't understand why she would put her family in that situation knowing that she wouldn't be able to fulfil her contract and instead leave it all up to Richard. Also on the night of the party - we actually prepared at least 60% of that. We were moving tables around, preparing some of the food etc. So it wasn't all just Susan. At one point we were going to cancel it because of them, but it turned out that we didn't. It all comes down to Susan really.
dave fi : why didn’t you play the role of servants if you were playing role of masters?????
chrism : So why didn't you play the role of servant as well when it was your turn?
milly : But then you didn't fulfil the role of servant
slideaway : Yes Malcolm -you enjoyed THAT role didn’t you .....trouble is you couldn’t hack playing the role of Servant and bottled it after just one day !!
Malcolm Rose : The first day when we took the children to school they didn't show us making the lunches for the children or any of that. We were told “what's on the list you do”…nothing else, so we stuck to the list, dropped the kids off at school, : but they were even picky over the list they gave us.
CJR : Why do you think Channel 4 saw fit to portray the programme in favour of the Mills? Why were they 'biased' towards the Mills family?
stevie s : Why do you think that C4 deliberately chose to portray you in an unfavourable light ?
Christine Rose : During production I didn't think they were biased but all they wanted to get into the hour show was the arguing, - the bits that will attract the public I suppose. So it was the editing that was biased.
Gita : Can you find no fault at all in your behaviour?
holly : Did you feel guilty about making Susan cry?
Christine Rose : No, she cried everyday. We asked the Producer whether we should let her go because we thought there was some kind of nervous breakdown looming. Richard said to me “She's like this all the time”. She took everything personally. She was continually telling the camera how awful I was. If you'd been there for 96 hours like we were Gita, my answer would still be no. I just wish that on that first day when we sacked them that the Producers hadn't persuaded them to stay, because we can't tolerate behaviour in our house that we wouldn't allow ourselves.
Clyde : Are you surprised at this level of reaction?
andydebbie : do you regret doing this now?
Christine Rose : I'm not really surprised no, because reality TV does attract a lot of attention. I am sorry that we had the Mills family when in fact the family we should have had pulled out at the last minute.
adam03 : have you got the candle wax off of your carpet yet?
Christine Rose : Production has paid compensation for that. All carpets have been replaced and my whole house has been redecorated. You didn't really get the true story on film.
Meghan O : Do you think you are at all to blame for the way you came across? Editing can only do so much to portray you in a certain light. You have to do horrid things for them to film them
Christine Rose laughs
Christine Rose : I totally agree with the way I came across. That is me. If I've got something to say I will say it. It's just a shame that the real reasons a lot of things were said were cut from the programme. There's no more I can say. If you see the Radio Times you will see what the Producers have written and about how he nearly lost his job and how the programme nearly didn't happen because of the Mills family.
Mayfair Londoner : Don't you think your instructions were too harsh and mocking in your week to be master??
Christine Rose : Once again, if you've got servants they are supposed to serve.
bodie : But you never served
Christine Rose : Every time I turned my back they were sat down in kitchen, drinking my coffee, using my shower and my towels which I had to go in and then clean...it just wasn't on. That's your impression, bodie.
butler : How do you feel about the way your children spoke to the Mills family? Were you happy to see them taunting the servants and making fun of them?
Christine Rose : I don't think they did make fun of the servants. They are young children who were just very excited about doing the programme. Every time they opened their mouths Luke continually used disgusting language throughout the whole thing. Richard apologised to me for the behaviour of his children. Susan did not like the fact that we were together as a family. She was playing up for the cameras and it was all an act.
g : Did you apologise to Richard?
Christine Rose : What for?
Malcolm Rose : Why should we?
lisa h : what a cheek!!
flukey : The issue is not what the Mills' family did at your house, it's your abject failure to fulfil the agreement. What incentive was there for you to stay as servants when you had already had the pleasure of being the masters? I think you had no intent of staying the course.
Jax : I agree flukey
Christine Rose : When we applied for the programme we were told that the idea of it was that you would either be masters or servants initially. Then the programme format changed. So in the first place we were looking forward to being servants. When you've got servants who really don't serve and you're a master who has to do twice as much work as usual, why on earth would you want to give anything back?
karen louise : What did you think you would get out of this experience when you decided to do it?
Christine Rose : You don't know what we encountered when we walked into that house. We thought it would be a full experience. We thought it would be great to be servants.
Malcolm Rose : We wanted to be servants more than masters.
Christine Rose : We gained nothing though, we thought we would gain something, but no.
Chat Ed : Our time is not far from being up, so last few questions...
Charbster : Why did u think that ur are so superior to the other family?
Malcolm Rose : We were just masters the first week, we were playing the role.
Christine Rose : I didn't think we were superior to them at all. Our children had worked 13 1/2 hours (that's 10 of us working that many hours) which is totally against health and safety regulations. 3 of our children were injured in that house the very first day. I am not superior to anybody, my children come first and my principles stay strong. It's only a programme.
Aaron : but that was not the fault of the Mills family! It seems that you are desperately trying to justify why you failed to do what the Mills family did for you
justice : So you feel that you were completely right and the Mills family were totally in the wrong?
marc : have you spoke to the mills recently?
Christine Rose : No I haven't spoken to them. I agree that what was seen on TV will leave people to draw their own conclusions.
Bert : Final note. We love the Mills!!!
Christine Rose : Goodbye and I'm only sorry that it wasn't live and maybe then we'd have seen the full, true story.
Christine Rose leaves the room
Malcolm Rose leaves the room
