User blog:2FromBFB/The lost Supernanny UK Epidode: The Dakin Family

So, I’m pretty sure if you’ve been in the Supernanny community for a while, your at least aware that the show started all the way back in the UK in 2004, before airing in the US like we all know the show for today. Unlike the US show, the UK series is home to some major controversies. Most notably the ones surrounding the Young Family. However, there is one episode of the UK version that never aired, and today, I’m gonna talk about it

Chapter 1: the beginning
If you’ve read the page for this episode, you’re likely aware that this episode was cancelled. Why exactly, is unknown. This episode was first advertised in The Porter Family, being advertised as the next family Jo would be visiting. This, of course never happened. And instead, Jo helped the Tomlin Family as her last UK family. This episode remained an entire mystery, so we didn’t even know wether or not this episode did actually exist, until 2018, where the Porter family was uploaded to YouTube, and we saw our first, and only glimpse of this unknown family. The family’s name isn’t known, however it’s referred to as “The Dakin Family” by fans. We’re not sure wether or not this is the official name, however the episodes IMDB page does have it, so it’s a possibility

Chapter 2: The episode
Now we’re moving on to the most interesting part of this episode. The episode itself. The page for it states the following in the episode description

“Jo takes on an fire-tempered 8-year-old boy who lashes out violently at his mum and a stroppy girl who throws tantrums and talks back. And mum has had enough. Can Jo get the kids in line and help this single mum or will things come crashing down and go from weakness to weakness?”

From here we can note a few things. The oldest boy is likely very aggressive, the girl is likely spoiled, and that the mother is likely on her last straw. However, the advertisement for it in the Porter family actually shows something interesting. The scene in particular shows Jo and the boy, with Jo telling the boy to “come here now” and the boy responding with “What?” If you look in the background, you can see the mother with the younger girl, and another older girl, who was not mentioned. From here, we can deduce that the family includes the mother, the younger and older girl and the boy.

What’s more special, is that we don’t know a single name of the family. The page originally stated the mother’s name was Clare, and that the boy was named Joel. These are likely false, as since the episode never aired, there’s no proof to back it up. Heck, we don’t even know what techniques were used in the episode. But if I had to guess, I’d likely say the reward chart was likely used in this alongside either the naughty step or naughty chair

Chapter 3: The false claims
Now we move on to this episodes false claims. Due to the episode being lost media, it’s certain to garner up some false claims, and BOY! Did it sure do so.

The mother and son names were, obviously fake. However there are two other ones that were on the page

The first of these was that Jo actually had enough, and started yelling at the family, in the process telling the mother to f*** off, before storming out, quitting helping the family all together and likely going to help the Tomlins. If this was true and the episode did air, this would’ve been shocking to all the people watching, as it would’ve been the first time Jo had actually snapped. Heck, it could’ve even started a major controversy, with Jo likely receiving major backlash for doing so. Similar to the backlash she received from Nanny on Tour around 2019-2020.

The second claim, is by far the most interesting, yet most dumbest. This claim stated that the mother, also snapped, and killed the children. Being executed in the process. This, is obviously fake, as ever since the 90’s executions have been illegal in the UK. I would know, because I live there. But let’s do a timeline of events, where the false rumours are true and the episode does air. With it being revealed afterwards that the mother killed the children. However instead of the mother being executed, she’s given a life sentence.

Firstly. This would’ve ended up on the news, with Jo being to blame for not being able to help, and yelling at the family. This likely would result in a Jeremy Kyle esc. situation, where the public turns on her and her show is taken off TV, never to be aired again, due to being involved in a murder, similar to how the Jeremy Kyle show got the same treatment, for being involved in someone taking their own life.

This would probably only happen in the UK though, so Jo, if all this did actually happen, would still retain the positive reputation she has amongst the US. This is unless, people from the US learn about the issue, and expose her for it, likely resulting in the exact same events happening in the UK, where the public turns on her and the Supernanny US show and all of its spin-offs is taken off TV.

Conclusion
In conclusion, this is definitely an interesting piece of media for the Supernanny franchise. It’s surprising to know that there’s only one episode that never aired on TV. And what’s worse, is that this episode may never be found, meaning the 30 second promotion from the Porter family will be the only piece of media from this episode that’s known, which is quite sad honestly.

It’s disappointing we’ll never know what exactly caused this episode to be canned, or if Jo was able to help the family, or if it became another failed family with the likes of the hill-house docherty family and the UK young family. Infact, what’s interesting is that there’s never been a US family Jo’s been unable to help, to my knowledge the closet she ever got to failing in the US series was the Jones-Nickolich Family, where she was banned from the house for two days.

But yeah, that’s the story of the unaired Supernanny UK episode. I actually wanna hear what you guys think caused this episode to be unaired, and if you think Jo helped or failed the family. Personally I suspect that either unfinished filming, or something with the family that happened is the reason this episode didn’t air, and as a result, I do think Jo wasn’t able to help the family