Fat Chance Of Success

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday July 15, 2006

with GLEN HUMPHRIES

The Brits seem to love their shows about health professionals who pull on the crankypants and tell fat people how awful they are.

Tomorrow night on WIN there's two of them back-to-back from 6.30pm - You Are What You Eat and Turn Back Your Body Clock.

Both feature authority figures giving the subject a good kicking. The former has beanpole nutritionist Gillian McKeith and the latter boasts Dr Una Coales.

If the British networks want medicos to give the unhealthy a gobful, they could at least find people who are good at it. Both Coales and McKeith are awful at trying to scare people.

McKeith is so skinny and pale that, when she tries to play the heavy, it's almost comical. Here's this sickly-looking person - who is hardly a good advertisement for the healthy lifestyle she preaches - trying to act tough.

Dr Coales takes a slightly different tack. She simply raises her voice every time she's cross with someone.

The thing is, it's not done in an angry way. Instead she sounds like a tourist in a foreign land who believes the best way to make locals understand English is to say everything in a loud voice, while leaving big gaps between each word.

Meanwhile, the unhealthy subject is sitting there thinking, "why's she yelling? I'm right in front of her".

Forget the healthy message these shows are pushing. The best thing about them is watching some distinctly non-threatening person trying to play the tough guy.

© 2006 Illawarra Mercury

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