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On the box - the TV week ahead
by Conrad Astley14/ 4/2005
TELEVISION executives of late seem to have become obsessed with
keeping us informed and entertained about fat people, although I'm
sure this is to reflect a very real national concern about the UK's
worrying obesity time bomb, and not because it's fun to laugh at
fatties.
Welcome to
Fatland
(ITV1, Tuesday)
provides a twist to the bizarre new sub-genre of fat-centric
reality TV.
This takes a different approach to many programmes which have been
about trying to get the contestants to lose weight. Instead, our
cuddly characters have been packed off to a Mexican holiday resort
catering specifically for their needs, and have to deal with
over-the-top Californian confidence coach Marilyn Wann and her "big
is beautiful" ideology.
The big-boned Brits don't care for her American ways one jot,
throwing a good dose of culture shock into the already-fun
mixture.
Pure entertainment, which is something sadly lacking from our
screens these days, as anyone who has ever watched Skint (BBC1,
Tuesday) will no doubt testify.
Fat people are okay, but who wants to come home from a hard day's
work and have to think about other people's money worries?
Getting to the opposite end of the extreme, the excitement with
which the nation greeted Christopher Eccleston's Dr Who proves what
many of us had suspected, that it's alright to be a geek in
2005.
But while Eccleston struggles to live with the title of the "most
hated man in sci-fi" after announcing he was quitting, the debate
about whether it's any good continues to rage.
While the introductory episode, few will disagree, was a little
piece of magic, number two looked like a bad Red Dwarf
out-take.
Just to confuse matters, standards were unexpectedly raised once
again in last week's offering, written by The League of Gentlemen's
Mark Gatiss rather than Queer As Folk's Russell T Davies.
Things could go either way in this week's episode, in which a
spaceship crash-lands on the Thames and London is closed off.
Only time will tell, but if that isn't enough Doctor for you, a
second portion is being dished up immediately afterwards in
Doctor Who Confidential
(BBC3, Saturday)
looking into the show's long history.
Meanwhile,
Demolition Live!
(Sunday, National
Geographic) speaks for itself. People blowing stuff up, live!
It doesn't get much better than that.
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