We caught up with Helen and Jack from Secret Life of Students

The two Leicester students set a few things straight about what really happened and how things can get easily misconstrued on screen.

Despite Channel 4’s documentary hitting the our screens in a way that caused an influx of debate, discussion and drama in the world of social media, like with every craze, things eventually calmed down and  we got the chance to chat to Helen and Jack about their experiences and thoughts.

With 150 hours of footage and only 15 minutes focused on each student, it’s not surprising that what we saw was a very compressed and 2-dimensional version of events.

“They showed things in a very different order and there were a lot of things not included” said Helen. She also revealed that the students didn’t have as much editing influence as was originally indicated.

For Jack, the programme was pretty much what he expected.

He says: “Lots of reasoning was left out…the show was true, but not necessarily honest.”

Helen added that things weren’t as “black and white” as they were set out to be, for example clips of her texting in a lecture gave the impression that this was all she did in lectures, when she claims that only happened once or twice.

Yep. Sure it did.

Jack has been recognized from the show on campus

Also, being involved with the show meant spending a lot of time with the crew and as a result they made some good friends.

Both Helen and Jack said it was weird when they were no longer around and looked back fondly on the affectionate cries of ‘channel 4 wankers’ that they encountered on various nights out from fellow students.

Involvement in the show was also how Helen and Jack met and the two have been friends since.

Helen says: “In a way the programme is sort of a summary of the first term. It’s nice to have looked back on some good memories.”

In terms of how things are going for them now, Jack told us that not much has changed despite having been recognized several times on campus and in his home town.

On the other hand, Helen says: “I feel life in second year is completely different, things have progressed, relationships have changed.”

Helen feels the show was very condensed but a nice montage of the first semester