The BBC is sending six British women to become 'second wives' to tribesmen in some of the world's most remote communities for a new documentary series. The women will spend a month shadowing the actual wives and carrying out their daily duties.
The series, titled 'Woman of the Tribe', will dispatch the women to Greenland, Papua New Guinea, Africa and Northern Mongolia. They will attempt to work, eat and sleep exactly as the real wives do to immerse themselves fully into the new culture.
Producers say the show will look at the hosts' perception of western culture through their visitors. Viewers will follow the progress of the tribal wife in the six-part series, which is set to be broadcast next year. Tribe members will be interviewed each week to assess how the British women are doing and 'how useful she is'.
The documentary follows the success of explorer Bruce Parry's 'Tribe' series on BBC2, in which the former Royal Marine faced challenges such as drinking clotted cattle-blood and running across the backs of a long line of bulls. It also echoes Channel 4's 'Wife Swap', which saw women experiencing the lifestyles of other women closer to home.
BBC Vision director Jana Bennett said: 'The beauty of this series is that it is a modern format that plays to the traditional strengths of BBC documentaries, with the aim of bringing a challenging and unfamiliar world to a wider audience.' Richard Klein, BBC commissioning editor for documentaries, added: 'Woman of the Tribe will give UK audiences and the six western women a real insight into how tribal women really live, the everyday issues they deal with, their hopes and fears, and their views on life.'
