There was a time when Channel 4 was considered edgy and dangerous. Despite its Horlicks-fuelled afternoon line up of Countdown and Fifteen To One the station became an altogether different beast after the watershed. At a time when the BBC would blush itself into self-imposed censorship at the merest suggestion of pubic hair Channel 4 deliberately and repeatedly offended the moral majority with programmes such as The Word, The Comic Strip, and Brass Eye.
Then along came digital television and suddenly every broadcaster had a means of airing their soiled laundry without upsetting mainstream viewers. Rather than attempting to compete with the BBC3s of the world Channel 4 decided to quit the race altogether and focus their attention on a fresh avenue: the long neglected Victorian sideshow. British audiences are therefore currently blessed with programmes such as The World’s Strongest Child and Me, 10 Years Younger, and, now in its second season, Supersize vs Superskinny.
Eating Disorders as Entertainment
The premise is suitably simplistic. Take one skeletal waif with barely enough stamina to hack their way through a slice of toast and one wheezing monument to the single-minded pursuit of cholesterol, and then ask them to switch diets. Thus ensues …