When I Grow Up
Channel 4
Planet Child
ITV

Real-life children are the hottest ticket on television. This may be because, unlike real-life adults, they are for the most part without side or self-consciousness, artless in front of the cameras and therefore with some wisdom, and usually a degree of scepticism, to impart about grown-up preoccupations.

Two shows this week focused on modern British children and the parental anxieties that surround them. Channel 4’s When I Grow Up takes children from a variety of backgrounds and puts them in offices and other work situations to see what this tells us about social inequality and expectations. Episode one (2 May), revealed that the first office the children encountered was that of the celebrity gossip magazine Hello! – and that seemed just one indication of how confused this experiment was.