\n<\/p>\n
In late 2010, on the verge of signing a contract to appear on a new reality TV series about fashionable young people in one of London\u2019s wealthiest boroughs, Ollie Locke, then 23, had a moment of hesitation.<\/p>\n
Locke \u2014 with his glossy hair falling past his shoulders, Queen\u2019s English and predilection for wearing designer shirts open to the sternum \u2014 worried that he might be depicted as garish, affluent, out of touch with the common man. He voiced his concerns to an executive, Locke recalled in a recent interview, who reassured him by explaining that it was basically out of his control: The show could make Locke appear that way only if he already had those attributes.<\/p>\n
When \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d premiered in the spring of 2011, Locke had a starring role among a coterie of chic socialities. The show was a stylized observational documentary in the style of MTV\u2019s \u201cThe Hills,\u201d<\/a> and a consciously upper-class counterpoint to \u201cThe Only Way Is Essex.\u201d<\/a> \u2014 \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d followed Locke and his circle as they navigated the often tumultuous ups and downs of friendships and relationships, all while dining at London\u2019s swankiest restaurants, sipping cocktails at exclusive nightclubs and cheering on polo matches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The formula has been an enduring success. \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d is one of Britain\u2019s longest-running reality TV programs<\/a>; it has had dozens of seasons over the past 13 years and has ranked among the top unscripted programs on its home channel, E4, every year since its debut, even as it has gently changed with the times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Locke said in a recent video interview from a resort in Barbados, \u201cbecause we didn\u2019t think it was going to work at the beginning. We thought it would be kind of a funny show that people would laugh at for six months and then move on with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n But the show has been so successful that it will soon break out of Chelsea: \u201cMade in Bondi,\u201d the first spinoff, is in the works from Australia\u2019s Seven Network and Britain\u2019s Channel 4, and will air later this year. \u201cBondi\u201d will take the original\u2019s formula to an opulent beachfront Sydney suburb, known for its picturesque glamour and high-end surfing culture.<\/p>\n The spinoff will be \u201cset against the backdrop of some of Australia\u2019s most affluent and beautiful suburbs,\u201d according to a statement<\/a> from Angus Ross, Seven\u2019s chief content officer. The original \u201cChelsea\u201d was pitched as a kind of real-life \u201cGossip Girl,\u201d said Leonie Joss, an executive producer of that show.<\/p>\n It was crucial, she said in a recent interview, that \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d didn\u2019t ridicule its cast members for their excesses: Viewers were meant to relate to them, despite their privilege.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the early seasons of \u201cMade in Chelsea,\u201d what Joss called \u201cthe posh factor\u201d was front and center. There was Mark-Francis Vandelli<\/a>, who had an aristocratic manner and used a special pair of scissors for cutting grapes, and <\/strong>Millie Mackintosh, who was known as the \u201ctoffee heiress\u201d<\/a> thanks to her family\u2019s chocolate empire.<\/p>\n Over the years, \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d has shifted toward slightly more down-to-earth men and women. Joss said that today\u2019s cast members are still \u201cwealthy and elite,\u201d but they tend to be more \u201creal people who are hard-working, entrepreneurs who have done well for themselves, not just spending Daddy\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n As the show has evolved, some of the original cast members have parlayed their time on \u201cChelsea\u201d into British television careers, appearing on shows like \u201cCelebrity Big Brother.\u201d Others have started podcasts<\/a> and businesses<\/a>. Many of them have remained fixtures of the British tabloid ecosystem<\/a>, their lives still chronicled obsessively, just not on prime time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Miles Nazaire, a cast member since 2018 and the closest thing the show currently has to a main character, said in a recent interview that while he grew up in Fulham, next to Chelsea, he felt different from his cast mates since he \u201cactually wasn\u2019t from that sort of class.\u201d Nazaire, who is half French, was recruited by producers when the show shot scenes at a Chelsea club where he was working as an event marketer, and has since gravitated to the center of the show, alongside mainstays like Olivia Bentley and Emily Blackwell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Locke, who is still a regular presence on the series \u2014 his 2020 wedding was filmed for a special episode<\/a> \u2014 said that the shifts on \u201cChelsea\u201d have reflected broader changes in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThe show has changed, but you\u2019ve got to remember that life has changed an awful lot in 14 years,\u201d he said. \u201cChelsea is not the same place that it used to be. It was all about pashminas \u2014 now it\u2019s a little bit realer, if you will.\u201d<\/p>\n Chelsea is still among the most expensive boroughs in London, though house prices there and in neighboring Kensington fell more than 17 percent last year<\/a>, one of the steepest drops in the city, as the country grappled with a cost-of-living<\/a> crisis and stagnant economy<\/a>. In the decade after \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d premiered, the borough\u2019s population has decreased \u2014 bucking the city\u2019s overall growth \u2014 and more residents are renting than when the show premiered, according to government data<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These and other changes have made Chelsea seem \u201ca bit more accessible to people now,\u201d Locke said, and that shift is reflected in a less flagrantly lavish show.<\/p>\n As the Chelsea on the show more closely resembles other moneyed metropolitan areas, it seems fitting that the program expands its focus to likable young posh people living elsewhere. On a \u201cMade in Chelsea\u201d miniseries that aired in December the core cast vacationed in Sydney, both to set up \u201cMade in Bondi\u201d and to remind viewers that this sort of drama needn\u2019t be limited to one elite borough.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Of course, not everyone is happy about this move toward relative normality.<\/p>\n \u201cPersonally, I\u2019d like it if we had more helicopters and things \u2014 we used to have private jets,\u201d Locke said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen those in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n