Dawn Porter: Polygamist's Wife

Dawn Porter

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As Dawn Porter's Channel 4 series on extreme relationships draws to a close, the presenter reflects on her time in the US with Mormons.

Whoever it was that said TV was glamorous, was clearly drunk.

A lot of the time, the realities of my job see me squatting in all manner of dark and dirty places.

[In April], I was 6,500 feet up a mountain, miles into the Arizonia desert with a Mormon man, his two wives, nine children, dog Cookie, and a distinct smell of poo radiating from the manually pumped toilet.

The sofa I was offered for a bed, usually Cookie's spot, was not sat on by five of the children - due to the youngest having urinated on it the week before - and the family meal of instant mashed potato, minced meat and salt flavourings, had my insides begging me to quit journalism, and get a much less liver-clogging career.

But the good points far outweigh the bad. The insight into the human mind and the paths that I crossed with people whom one would never usually even read about made every second of the discomfort worth it. 

It is quite a contradiction to come away from experiences like that feeling lucky but as I made my way back to civilization I knew I had just experienced something incredible.

Don't get me wrong; I still crave the glamour I was told would come with being a TV presenter. I just have to find it for myself, and introduce it as and where I can. And how do I do that? Fashion, of course.

I have spent hours trawling the vintage shops of LA to make my wardrobe for this series as fun as possible. Without trying to distract from the moment, I plan to inject a colour and glow that will make the darkest scenarios seem bright. 

Very often in meetings, there is a comparison made between myself and Louis Theroux when referring to our subject matters.

This may be well and true, and I love the association, but when was the last time you saw Louis ask a Free Love enthusiast how many times he has contracted the clap, whilst wearing a psychedelic micro mini and a pair of pink patent Mui Mui's? It might not make the actual interview anymore informative, but it looks fabulous. And I love it.

I feel it is really important for me to go into these scenarios entirely as me, and not a compromised version of myself, with the hope of blending in. These worlds are so far removed from mine that I am as fascinated by their response to me and who I am, as to what I will discover about them.

Maybe they don't care for clothes, and will think that I am materialistic and vain for dressing the way that I do. But this is all part of the fun.

They get nothing but the real me, and even if they don't like it, it means we get to see the real them. Which no matter what I am wearing, will always be the most colourful thing on the screen.

This blog was originally uploaded on 9 April

Click here to browse Dawn's series of blogs for Broadcastnow