Bad Lads Army is a bold development of Lads Army, ITV’s RTS Award winning and BAFTA nominated factual entertainment format of 2002 which goes to the heart of the debate on National Service – can a short sharp dose of 1950s style military training and traditional values sort out the young troublemakers of today?

This summer thirty 18-24 bad lads – shoplifters, graffiti taggers, noisy neighbours or gang members – will be put through a regime which half way through the last century was reputed to turn boys into men. From different social backgrounds and from the length and breadth of Britain, these are lads who have gone off the rails and are looking for a chance to get back on track – former petty criminals who have paid their debt to society through the modern justice system but are interested in the long term benefits of a more traditional approach.

The lads will be carefully vetted on the grounds of taste and decency. No-one with a record of violence will be considered. Viewers must believe they stand a good chance of reforming themselves so they can connect with them emotionally. Other examples of bad lads might include posh boys expelled from public school, rowdy yobs banned from their local, benefit fraudsters, absent dads who refuse take responsibility for their kids, joy riders and illegal squatters.

The experiences of our guinea pigs as they undergo four weeks of gruelling basic training will be inter-cut with the hilarious and moving testimony of celebrities who did it for real fifty years ago, some of whom will have had the odd brush with the law themselves. National Service did it for them. Can it help today’s bad lads?