Most of the time, content that goes popular on social media is the result of hard work and careful planning. But for Jane Boulton, it was a total surprise.
Back in 1998, Jane, whose last name is now Lee, worked at the EasyJet desk at Luton airport. Unexpectedly, her team was chosen to be the focus of a new reality show called Airline.
The ITV show ran until 2007, and then Jane went back to a quieter life away from TV.
Jane, who is now 52, got married and had three daughters: one who is 16 and twins who are 13 years old. She now lives in South London, runs her own cake shop called Party Paradise, and works for Hertfordshire County Council.
It wasn’t until one of her kids was quickly scrolling through TikTok that her past showed up in a big way.
‘About four months ago, one of the twins went to me, “Mum, you’re all over TikTok.” I was shocked, it was 20 years ago,’ she said.
‘I don’t even know how to work TikTok so I don’t know what’s going on.’
In many of the films that are going around on social media, Jane is seen telling late travellers that they can’t get on their flight. Most of the time, they are unhappy, and Jane gets the worst of it.
Jane has been discovered by a new generation, and comments are full of praise for her no-nonsense approach and sharp responses.
One video’s caption reads: ‘Jane is an absolute icon. Putting entitled people in their place.’
On TikTok, videos with Jane have been watched a crazy 26 million times.
‘People are saying hello to me in the street, and shouting my full name. I’m glad they recognise me because that must mean I haven’t aged to look completely different,’ remarked Jane.
‘I’ve seen so many sweet comments, and I try to reply to as many as I can. 90% of them are lovely. It’s very touching that people call me an “icon”.’
This number surprised Jane, because she doesn’t think the show has always shown her in a good light.
‘They made me look like such a cow,’ she stated. ‘The programme was edited to show the passengers missing flights and not having the best time because obviously, everything going smoothly was never good TV.
‘A lot of those passengers I was with for hours, and they will cut it down to 30 seconds. They had usually spoken to around three people before me too, who’d say the exact things. People didn’t get that the departed planes weren’t attached to a string, and I couldn’t just pull them back.
‘I do understand their frustration, and I had to try to remember that it wasn’t personal.
‘I will turn up at the airport three hours early to this day in order to avoid these situations, and hopefully, everyone who watched the show learned to do the same.’
Jane added: ‘Viewers often didn’t get to see how much I helped people. There was one time an elderly lady missed her flight. I let her stay in the spare bedroom of my flat, and then drove her back to the airport the next day.
‘I’m very empathetic and sympathetic – that was rarely shown. It feels like an unfair portrayal of who I really am. However, it was getting 10 million viewers on a Friday night, so clearly the producers knew what they were doing though.’
Jane said that things were even worse behind the scenes than what the guests showed on camera.
‘I’ve had passengers spit at me, swearing and throwing luggage. They’d put cameras in customers’ faces, which could make it worse.’
Even though some parts of her job are hard, Jane still thinks it’s the best she’s ever had.
‘I absolutely loved my job,’ Jane told us.
‘Those people that you work with become your family because you don’t have the social life that all your friends and family have. You can’t go out on a Friday or Saturday night, because you’re working nights or you’ve got to be at work at four in the morning. We called ourselves the “orange family”.’
Jane is still in touch with her coworkers, like Leo Jones and Katrina Leeder, who she worked with on the show.
‘There was nothing like that job, and there’s been nothing like it since.
‘The only reason I left in 2018 is I was staying away from home Monday to Friday, and not getting to spend time with my young children.
‘If they did a reprise of the show and wanted me back I would definitely strongly consider it.’
But she would do things a little differently this time.
‘We were very naive. They told me initially that they’d do a little bit of filming for a few days. Instead, I was followed for pretty much every shift for eight years. It was relentless.
‘We all signed disclaimers, and so none of us got paid a penny for the show. I had no idea what I was signing myself up for.
‘We laugh now, and say that if it would have been on in the last five years, we’d be millionaires.’ Now, they’d be able to use social media and pursue opportunities.’
Not getting any money made it harder for Jane to deal with the fact that her whole life had been turned upside down.
‘I’d get followed around the supermarket. There would be weirdos waiting outside for me in the car park when I’d finish my shifts at 1am.’
Despite it all, Jane ‘doesn’t regret a single second,’ and we’re glad we can relive all those seconds on TikTok.