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How do Secret Millionaires stay secret?

If I ran a charity and a documentary-maker showed up, I would assume the best. But the charities on this series always seem genuinely surprised
David Jamilly in Secret Millionaire
David Jamilly in the final episode of this series of The Secret Millionaire. Photograph: Channel 4

Tonight, in the final episode of the current series, Secret Millionaire viewers will witness self-made millionaire David Jamilly visiting Redcar, North Yorkshire, having waved farewell to his luxury lifestyle for a week of benefit-level subsistence in a flat where a mattress lacking ravenous mini-beasts is considered a luxury. You know the drill: the millionaires visit charities, individuals and community groups and then and donate thousands - sometimes hundreds of thousands – of pounds.

What's odd is that nobody else does. It's brilliant that charities are being given cash of course – in this series, Jahan Abedi, a refugee from Iran, who had "never given a penny to a man who could work" donated thousands to refugee charities; Paul Ragan (whose late mother had schizophrenia) went to Derby, where he was glad to donate generously to a young carer – but don't the charities ever guess what's going on? Given that the show's format is always the same, you'd think that a documentary-maker arriving in a deprived area for a week would immediately be suspected of being a Secret Millionaire (and possibly prove a massive disappointment if they are not). But nobody ever questions the fictitious documentary being made (the show's customary ruse to explain the accompanying camera crew), or guesses the rich-lister's secret.

It's not just The Secret Millionaire, of course. There are loads of shows where the element of surprise seems completely unlikely – but given the reactions on TV is completely genuine. Viewers wonder how anyone meeting Jeremy Kyle for instance could seriously expect to be discussing their nan's recipe for fruitcake, rather than confronting a terrifying ex-partner about to go postal? Or whether there will ever be an episode of Grand Designs when during a scheme to convert a subterranean coalscuttle into a palace, Kevin McCloud doesn't have "concerns about the project", the budget doubles, and the builders moan about how unrealistic the plans are? None of them could strictly be called scripted shows – but most of us could probably predict what's coming next.

But thankfully The Secret Millionaire charities cannot: last week the founders of the cancer charity Firefly touchingly accepted £10,000 while weeping copiously and genuinely. The covert millionaire and cancer survivor Fil Adams-Mercer was crying. Everyone was crying. If ever a documentary team turned up at our front door doing good, we might well presume they had cash to donate, but for those who run charities The Secret Millionaire appears to remain just that. And that genuine surprise is arguably as heart-warming as the donations they receive.

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