Ananova:

The producers of Channel 4's Wife Swap are looking for a "lazy a***" family from Manchester for the new series of the show.

The Manchester Evening News claims producers contacted them in an effort to find another Lizzy Bardsley.

The Rochdale mother-of-eight's life exchange with a family in Devon was the main talking point of the last series on Channel 4.

The newspaper says it was contacted by a London-based TV executive who said she was looking for the "biggest, proudest couch potatoes in Britain . . . lazy a**** with motor mouths!"

The producer told the paper: "We're looking for the laziest family in Britain and we would like someone from the Manchester area."

But the request has been criticised by Blackley Labour MP Graham Stringer. He said: "Taking loudmouth, lazy, benefit-dependent people from Manchester and putting them with southerners is going to give a prejudicial view of Manchester.

"It is not a fair depiction of the north. Those sort of people exist in every part of the country. There are more people in London so there must be more lazy people there than anywhere else."