Larry Lamb, former villain on Eastenders and the dad from Gavin and Stacey, has been accused of making ‘no effort’ when he took part in new BBC show Famous, Rich and Jobless. The forthcoming documentary challenges famous faces to deal with being out of work in a bid to raise awareness of what it is like to be unemployed in the UK.

Lamb was apparently dispatched to search for work in Hartlepool on the programme. However, the show’s presenter Emma Harrison soon spotted him strolling along the beach when he should have been job-hunting.

“[Larry] just came up with a host of excuses not to engage with what we were trying to do,” Harrison commented. “He hadn’t earned a penny and he didn’t even make an effort to try and find work. Trying to demonstrate to him the harsh truths of unemployment was exasperating.”

Harrison is the founder of employment agency A4e and is currently working as the government’s ‘Back to Work Tsar’.

She added: “Larry really disappointed me. The programme succeeds in highlighting the huge problems faced by the unemployed but he made no real effort to respond to the challenge.”

Famous, Rich and Jobless begins on March 9 at 9pm on BBC One.