EXTREME MAKEOVER – HOME EDITION

(Really)

THE ONE SHOW

(BBC1)

Is it just me, or is the BBC gradually getting more depressing each evening?

After I get in from work the last thing I want to do is watch families ripping each other to shreds in Eastenders, a murder in The Body Farm and a documentary called Spain’s Stolen Babies.

I want some light entertainment, something to put a smile on my face and convince me that the world isn’t the horrible place the BBC seems to want us to believe.

So, I had to turn to a cheesy American home improvement show on the digital channel Really to give me that lift.

I thought Extreme Makeover – Home Edition would be like all the other house improvement shows, such as 60 Minute Makeover, where a team spend the day redecorating a deserving person’s house.

However, this is the American version and it has to be bigger and better than anything else. So, you see the glamorous team ripping down someone’s home and rebuilding it to around four times the size of the original house.

Last night it was the Collins family and parents Dennis and Kim had taken in five orphaned children, and their small bungalow just wasn’t big enough to house them all.

So, presenter Ty Pennington with his all-American white smile and laid back attitude sends the family off to Disney World in Florida for a week and then helped manage the building of their new 4,700 sq ft house.

There are a lot of “awesomes” and high fives going around the team of hundreds, which includes neighbours joining in to help with the building work. The sense of community is incredible and the look on the family’s faces when they see their finished home is wonderful – in fact it is awesome.

Now, I know the BBC isn’t all bad and so after Extreme Makeover I turned to the One Show, which is always good for a bit of light entertainment.

Last night Matt Baker and Alex Jones welcomed Ian Hislop to discuss the 50th anniversary of Private Eye.

I discovered last night that the news and current affairs magazine’s origins can be traced back to Shrewsbury School where founders Christopher Booker and Richard Ingrams were pupils.

I’ve always found it hard to believe that Ian Hislop is editor of anything as even when he looks serious there always seems to be a smile lurking behind those red chubby cheeks and crinkly eyes.

It seems he is the most sued man in legal history – but you would have to be a pretty cool customer to take such a cutie pie to court.

When the show went outside the studio to see the puppets from War Horse Ian was dressed up in what looked to be a Paddington Bear-style duffle coat – ah, bless his little cotton socks. Anyway, the show also looked at robotic surgery in hospitals and a public art production in Salford called Limelight. But, it was the War Horse puppet at the end of the show which got my attention.

The puppets are driven by three people and are the size of a real horse – they looked spectacular and so real that Alex Jones couldn’t stop herself from stroking its nose.

By Cathy Spencer