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Rhune
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The commando nanny
« on: Nov 5^th, 2003, 9:59pm »

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The commando nanny

Falklands veteran Mark Burnett went to LA looking for military work - and became a live-in nanny instead. Now his story is set to become a US sitcom. He talks to Duncan Campbell

Wednesday November 5, 2003
The Guardian

What do Mary Poppins and a former member of the Parachute Regiment have in common? They were both caring nannies whose stories have inspired screenplays.

Mark Burnett, who served with the Parachute Regiment in the Falklands war and in Northern Ireland before becoming a nanny in Beverly Hills, may not be quite as famous as Mary Poppins, but that may soon change. The pilot of a US sitcom based on his story has been commissioned by Warner Brothers and should be completed by next spring. If it is successful, a full-scale series based on his adventures in the combat zone of Beverly Hills will follow. So how did a Dagenham-born member of the military find himself employed as a nanny looking after the three children of a wealthy Los Angeles real-estate businessman and his young wife?

"I had joined up when I was 17," says Burnett, who is now 43 and settled in Malibu. "And I left in 82 after about five years." He came out to Los Angeles originally with a view to using his military experience to find work in Central America, at that time embroiled in a series of civil wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala.

"There was a lot of recruiting going on by various military groups, a lot of options," says Burnett, who has retained his Dagenham accent despite having spent about half his life in California and becoming an American citizen. He was not going to be a mercenary, he says, but an "adviser" at a time when various shadowy ex-SAS men were arranging contracts for ex-soldiers.

However, just before he set off from Heathrow to begin this new chapter in his life, his mother said to him: "Don't put us through any more of that hell, that military stuff." An only son who adored both his parents, Burnett had 11 hours to contemplate his mother's parting words as his plane headed to Los Angeles. By the time he had arrived in California, he had decided that there had to be a better way of making a living.

He started looking for work in LA, scouring the situations vacant columns. Through friends, he was pointed in the direction of temporarily looking after the children of a wealthy Beverly Hills couple who needed a nanny for the teenage son and daughter of the father's first marriage and their own toddler son. He was given an interview by his prospective employers, a fairly conservative father who had made his money in real estate and consultancy and his much younger and more open-minded second wife.

"I assured them that my experience as a soldier meant that I was the best at washing and cleaning," says Burnett, citing the importance the armed forces attach to shiny shoes, neatly pressed trousers and spotless barracks.

The father of the family was unimpressed. "I could tell from the way that he was looking me in the eye that he was thinking, 'There's no way you're going to last for more than two weeks'," recalls Burnett. "I'm sure he thought I was trying to put one over on them and he started off making it his mission to get rid of me." But the young wife was determined to give him a break. "She became my defender," says Burnett. "She was much more liberal and liked the idea of having someone like me looking after the children. It's a very sweet story, really."

Having started his nannying as a temporary stop-gap, he found out that he liked it and worked both for the family in Beverly Hills and then others in the LA area, including one family in Malibu, just a mile from where Burnett now has his own home.

The first job was an eye-opener. "I had never seen a dishwasher before - in my home, my mother had been the dishwasher," he says. "I was a fish out of water." He found that he was being provided with his own room and bathroom, his own phone and television set with 99 channels, a classic Mercedes to drive around in and $125 (Ł74) a week to spend, no small deal more than 20 years ago. "I had come from a working-class home in Dagenham and landed in the lap of luxury." However, he was so bad at his cleaning duties that a cleaner was hired separately.

There were some similarities to the military in that he was almost always on duty, he says, although it may be easier to get up in the morning in Beverly Hills than Aldershot, the headquarters of his old regiment.

"It's a bit like the army, there were no real hours," says Burnett. "You're on call from six in the morning until 10 at night. But I loved the kids and I really enjoyed it."

He often found himself as the only male in a large group of nannies and mothers taking their charges out to the park. He says he used humour as a way of disciplining the children. And, no, he did not have to wear a uniform. The children liked having him as a nanny, he says, because he could teach them things like scuba-diving and did not take life too seriously.

He credits his mother with having given him the confidence to apply for the job. "I was always encouraged to believe that I could do anything," he says. "I was brought up with more love and morality than you can imagine." His parents were sympathetic to, if surprised by, his new role: "They always thought I was nutty - they thought going into the Parachute Regiment was nutty."

Burnett left his first employer when he felt that the toddler was becoming too closely attached to him. "It would not have been healthy in the long run, I wasn't his dad," says Burnett, who has children of his own now. Although he is separated and shares custody with the children's mother, he does not employ a nanny for them because, he says, he enjoys bringing them up himself.

The friends he had made in the armed forces - "the salt of the earth" - thought he was joking when he told them what he was doing as a new career. None of them have followed the same path, he says, heading instead for the rather more traditional careers in the police and security; some of them are currently working as bodyguards for CNN and NBC in Baghdad.

Burnett himself took a very different career direction after nannying. He had taken part in an adventure race around the world in the mid-80s, which he documented on film for the benefit of his sponsors. The film was a success and heralded his way into the world of television production where he has since achieved prominence as the producer of Survivor in the US. He has his own production company.

Meanwhile, Commando Nanny, as the sitcom is provisionally titled, will soon be casting. Its pilot should be screened next autumn and will be, says Burnett, somewhere between "Mary Poppins and Down and Out in Beverly Hills".

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Pocket
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Re: The commando nanny
« Reply #1 on: Nov 6^th, 2003, 12:38pm »

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What a hoot! Mark Burnett, commando/nanny/adventure enthusiast/tvproducer.

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MzWings
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Re: The commando nanny
« Reply #2 on: Nov 6^th, 2003, 2:23pm »

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on Nov 6^th, 2003, 12:38pm, Pocket wrote:

What a hoot! EVIL PERSONMark Burnett, commando/nanny/adventure enthusiast/tvproducer.

You left out the most important part, Pocket! :laff:

« Last Edit: Nov 6^th, 2003, 2:24pm by MzWings »

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