Five Stars Ambassadors

Move over The Only Way Is Essex – now it’s the turn of Manchester university students to become the new stars of reality TV.

For Lime Pictures, the company behind the hit ITV docu-soap TOWIE which has made celebrities of personalities like Mark Wright, Sam Faiers and Amy Childs, is now to shift its spotlight to our city’s new student intake.

The show, which will be called Freshers, is to launch on Channel 4 in the autumn.

Producers are aiming to recruit seven new starters at our unis – Salford, Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan – come September to follow on camera as they embark on their studies and, ahem, extra-curricular activities too. 

But I hear they’ve already recruited their first personality in the form of our reigning Miss Manchester Nicola McConnell.

For while Nicola failed to win the title of Miss England at the pageant finals last week, I hear she has caught the eye of the TV producers.

The brainy 18-year-old from Rochdale is due to study medicine at Manchester University in October.

Nicola tells me that a film crew has already been to her home to start filming, so now she is just hoping she’ll secure the straight-A grades she’ll need from her A-levels, sat last month at Oldham Hulme Grammar School, to embark on her degree and to ensure she’s a part of Freshers too.

Nicola beams: “They’ve already started to do some filming so it’s all quite exciting.  I just hope I get my grades now!

“They told me that the show will be following the lives of seven students who have unusual and unique circumstances as they head to university.”

Producers are still looking for potential candidates to follow over the summer and at the start of studies in September and October, although the deadline for applications is this Sunday