Skint (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Skint is a BBC
documentary
series centred on the lives of people who use buy back stores and pawn brokers to manage their finances.
Series 1 of Skint (BBC1 TV 2005 - series producer Chris Hutchins) was based in Birmingham and featured Vernon and Bob, and others who used buy back stores to manage their money. A key character was Mary, who ran a buy-back store in Erdington.
Series 2 of Skint (BBC1 TV 2006 - series producer Nick Woodroffe) introduced viewers to a new city and new characters. Attention turned to Bristol and the characters of Tony and Cath, Nick Faber and others. Much of the filming centered around the Cash Converters' on Bedminster High Street and the Gloucester Road.
A 30m special in Autumn 2006 focussed on people who struggled to find a roof over their heads. It was part of the BBC's No Home season. It featured Vernon, Gaz and Cathy as they struggled with the threats of homelessness.
, with members of the public purchasing his Big Issues on the premise of receiving an autograph.
Vernon was born in the September of 1965 at City Hospital, Birmingham
. He was educated at Colmore Infant School in his younger years.
His enthusiastic spirit has led him to become the central subject of the programme. Vernon enjoys his entrepreneurial mindset, often purchasing items and reselling with a high mark-up
. Vernon recorded a reggae
single
to coincide with Christmas
2006, entitled "I'm Skint". While not an official release (and therefore not recognised by singles charts), the £2.50 CDR
was posted to customers with an accompanying Christmas card
, personally signed by Vernon himself.
Vernon currently resides in Brierley Hill, although regularly travels to the city centre to buy and sell the Big Issue. He was wrongly accused of the murder of a young lady on a train in the 1980s. After the establishment of his innocence, Vernon spent twelve weeks in a spell in a psychiatric hospital
, the trauma of which resulted in the issues with his current mental health
.
series, Bob has appeared occasionally throughout the programme. He is a musician intent on making a living through live music, often pawning
his guitar for a keyboard in buyback
schemes, before deciding to trade back again. Bob has made numerous live appearances, most notably at an Irish bar in Birmingham
(for which he was paid £20 to finish early). He has also been seen busking
on Erdington
High Street, before being moved on by the police
.
Skint 1 & 2 were filmed on PD150 and PD170 DV cameras by Chris Hutchins, Nick Woodroffe, Phil Kerswell, Liz Allen, Jon Mowat, Richard Maxwell, Clare Lockhart, Martin Hicks and others.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
series centred on the lives of people who use buy back stores and pawn brokers to manage their finances.
Series 1 of Skint (BBC1 TV 2005 - series producer Chris Hutchins) was based in Birmingham and featured Vernon and Bob, and others who used buy back stores to manage their money. A key character was Mary, who ran a buy-back store in Erdington.
Series 2 of Skint (BBC1 TV 2006 - series producer Nick Woodroffe) introduced viewers to a new city and new characters. Attention turned to Bristol and the characters of Tony and Cath, Nick Faber and others. Much of the filming centered around the Cash Converters' on Bedminster High Street and the Gloucester Road.
A 30m special in Autumn 2006 focussed on people who struggled to find a roof over their heads. It was part of the BBC's No Home season. It featured Vernon, Gaz and Cathy as they struggled with the threats of homelessness.
Vernon Burgess
Appearing from the first series, Vernon has since become a minor celebrityCelebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, with members of the public purchasing his Big Issues on the premise of receiving an autograph.
Vernon was born in the September of 1965 at City Hospital, Birmingham
City Hospital, Birmingham
City Hospital is a major hospital in the city of Birmingham, England. It is located in the Winson Green area of the west of the city....
. He was educated at Colmore Infant School in his younger years.
His enthusiastic spirit has led him to become the central subject of the programme. Vernon enjoys his entrepreneurial mindset, often purchasing items and reselling with a high mark-up
Markup (business)
Markup is the difference between the cost of a good or service and its selling price. A markup is added on to the total cost incurred by the producer of a good or service in order to create a profit. The total cost reflects the total amount of both fixed and variable expenses to produce and...
. Vernon recorded a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
to coincide with Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
2006, entitled "I'm Skint". While not an official release (and therefore not recognised by singles charts), the £2.50 CDR
CD-R
A CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
was posted to customers with an accompanying Christmas card
Christmas card
A Christmas card is a greeting card sent as part of the traditional celebration of Christmas in order to convey between people a range of sentiments related to the Christmas and holiday season. Christmas cards are usually exchanged during the weeks preceding Christmas Day by many people in Western...
, personally signed by Vernon himself.
Vernon currently resides in Brierley Hill, although regularly travels to the city centre to buy and sell the Big Issue. He was wrongly accused of the murder of a young lady on a train in the 1980s. After the establishment of his innocence, Vernon spent twelve weeks in a spell in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
, the trauma of which resulted in the issues with his current mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
.
Bob Steele
From his first appearance in the initialInitial
In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a work, a chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is derived from the Latin initialis, which means standing at the beginning...
series, Bob has appeared occasionally throughout the programme. He is a musician intent on making a living through live music, often pawning
Pawnbroker
A pawnbroker is an individual or business that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral...
his guitar for a keyboard in buyback
Buyback
Buyback may refer to:*Buyback, the act of rebuying something that one previously sold, as with a lemon *Share repurchase, also called stock repurchase or share buyback, the repurchase of stock by the company that issued it-See also:...
schemes, before deciding to trade back again. Bob has made numerous live appearances, most notably at an Irish bar in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
(for which he was paid £20 to finish early). He has also been seen busking
Busking
Street performance or busking is the practice of performing in public places, for gratuities, which are generally in the form of money and edibles...
on Erdington
Erdington
Erdington is a suburb northeast of Birmingham city centre, England and bordering Sutton Coldfield. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee...
High Street, before being moved on by the police
West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...
.
Skint 1 & 2 were filmed on PD150 and PD170 DV cameras by Chris Hutchins, Nick Woodroffe, Phil Kerswell, Liz Allen, Jon Mowat, Richard Maxwell, Clare Lockhart, Martin Hicks and others.