Despite reducing aspiring actors to tears on national television, Kate Marlow insists she is not the next Nasty Nigel.

The drama coach is the latest in a long line of figures the public loves to hate on the small screen.

Following in the footsteps of Nigel Lithgoe and Simon Cowell, whose abrupt and abrasive manners upset contestants on hit programmes Popstars and Pop Idol, Kate is the star of Model Turned Actor.

The documentary follows 20 models who answered an advert in The Stage newspaper to enrol on an acting course run by Kate, who lives in Hove.

As with all good reality television shows, there has to be someone the public love to hate. Cue Kate.

The Guardian's television reviewer Gareth McLean described she as "sniffy, disingenuous" and "intoxicated by her own self-importance".

But the 38-year-old says she has been misinterpreted.

She said: "They had 60 hours of filming for the documentary, which they cut down to one hour.

"Some of the things written about me have been quite hard but I have to take them with a pinch of salt.

"I am not like Nasty Nigel or Simon who play Caesar. I am just guiding people to give them more skills.

"Independent Television Commission rules did not allow me to see the documentary before it was broadcast last week so I didn't know how I would appear.

"They have made a sensational programme over two parts.

"In the first week they set it up, there was a picture painted of me doing these terrible things.

"Hopefully, I will come across better in the second part."

The final episode of the two-part documentary will be broadcast on Channel 4 tonight.

In America, turning models into silver-screen icons is big business. Just ask actors Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg and actress Cameron Diaz.

This side of the Atlantic, acting success has traditionally been down more to talent, luck and hard graft.

But agent Camilla Storey decided to bring more beautiful people to the stage and screen.

The show follows her, the group of would-be actors and, of course, Kate, who was brought in to shake up the assembled throng and prepare them for the stage.

Kate, who has worked as a drama teacher and is now a theatre director, said the change in her students during two weeks was amazing.

The series was shot in August and some of the models have gone on to find parts in movies.

Meanwhile, Kate is hoping to start running some acting classes in Brighton.

However, she admits she has already been recognised on the street after the show and two more television offers have come in.

Model Turned Actor is on Channel 4 tonight at 11.25pm.