Grand finale for Italy granny show

By Frances Kennedy BBC, Rome

A homely 73-year-old has been voted Italy's grooviest granny in the final of a television series that has taken the country by storm.

Carpina's no-nonsense approach won her the victor's crown

Carpina Zuccarino, a mother of 11 and grandmother of 21, takes away a 250,000-euro prize.

Joking about having breastfed all of her offspring and dancing in bare feet because it was more comfortable, Carpina's no nonsense approach won over the jury in the grand final of the tv show Velone.

The programme was one of the surprise hits of the summer, regularly topping ratings with more than five million viewers each night.

Queens for a day, for an hour, for a minute, all taken up with the honour of humiliating themselves simply to appear on TV Natalia Aspesi, La Repubblica

The format was an adaptation, with a touch of irony, of another hit show Veline, where leggy girls strut their stuff vying for a role as visual support for male TV show hosts.

The women were competing to be an all-round good performer - an older woman with chutzpah.

Criticism

They had to sing, dance and perform, to show they were not afraid to have a go, and not be put off by the often smutty wisecracks of the host.

Tommassina, Carpina, Fedora and Domenica - in order of appearance

The losing finalists were:

• Fedora, a tiny 91-year-old Venetian in a blue-and-white spotted dress and an elegant hat
• Tommassina, an extrovert mother of five who swore she has seen a UFO
• Domenica, a stooped figure with flamboyant sunglasses and a penchant for bawdy rhymes.

While the programme has been a ratings success, it is not to everyone's taste.

"Queens for a day, for an hour, for a minute, all taken up with the honour of humiliating themselves simply to appear on TV," commented Natalia Aspesi, a leader writer on Rome daily la Repubblica and in the Velone age bracket herself.

Wilder side

She argued that even if the women involved are willing participants they are still exploited, "like merchandise that is more perishable then the rest."

Programme inventor Antonio Ricci said he was simply giving older woman a chance to show their wilder side.

"I've been criticised from all quarters because people think that old people should behave like old people. The ideal grandmother is the one from the advertisement for bleach, who knows how to get clothes clean," he said.

It appears that Velone has triggered new interest in the older generation in a country which has one of the highest percentages of elderly people in Europe.

'Ghetto'

State broadcaster RAI has begun airing a version of a Norwegian reality show, Super Seniors. It features a group of over-60s who live together in a castle with the task of preparing a theatre performance.

Older Italians should be respected for their hard-earned wrinkles, not for whether they can wiggle their arthritic hips Franco Ferrarotti Sociology professor

The carefully chosen participants are articulate and given a chance to express themselves. Ratings for the first episode were, however, disappointing.

Sociology Professor Franco Ferrarotti says the emergence of "old folks' TV" is just the latest reflection of Italians' conviction that if you don't appear on the small screen you don't exist:

"The problem with Velone, which is truly disgusting, and Super Seniors, is that they close old people into a ghetto," he said.

"Young Italians are running round like headless chickens because they have absolutely no sense of the past.

"Older Italians should be actively engaged with the younger generation and should be respected for their hard-earned wrinkles, not for whether they can wiggle their arthritic hips."