Ian Wright’s Unfit Kids, thankfully, was exactly as I’d hoped. Sulky children and a sulky bullish Wrighty. Wright, all round entertainer and former England footballer, cares deeply about getting the nation’s kids fitter, and so, went to a chosen secondary school, and conducted some tests… ultimately, to see who the most unhealthy teens were.
With astonishing results, one child was shown to have 51% of his body made entirely of fat. Frightening. The worried sick look on Ian Wright’s face said it all. Instead of chastising the kids (this comes later) he gritted his teeth and set about shaping them up. This however, won’t come easy as Wright finds more obsticles in his way that previously thought.
Naturally, Ian Wright is a gifted athlete. Even now he’s no longer involved in football (only as a pundit). he’s managed to stay in decent shape. That accounted for, he’s a former world-class athlete, so you’d half expect it. The kids in last night’s show had great enthusiasm for the initial tasks… mainly because Ian Wright was around… but the novelty soon wore off to reveal the excuses.
"I don’t want no excuses… they’re being lazy… they’re giving lip ‘cuz I’m pushin’ them" was soon to be heard from Wright. If you’re reasonably fit and/or decent at sport, you’re used to orders being barked from the sidelines. Orders, which are usually designed to encourage and push you that little bit further. The really fascinating aspect of this programme is how Wright is also going on a personal journey. He isn’t dealing with sporty people who have let themselves go… he dealing with kids who are picked on and left to fester in sports activities.
When he realises that is tactics aren’t working, Wright tries to find other ways to get the kids active. The ‘shouting’ brought Wright at loggerheads with one of the kid’s mums. Her words "I don’t care if it’s the f**king Queen – I don’t like my son being shouted at an’ comin’ home in tears!" Even if the call is a little misguided, you can’t really argue.
So various activities are introduced (fencing being a popular one because "we got to play with swords!") but with mixed success. Then, in the defining moment of this first of a three parter, Wright gets the parents to don tracksuits, and take the kids on at a game of handball. On first viewing, it is a rousing success, with the kids and their parents giggling and playing together. However, one mother refuses to take part (as she’s a little overweight herself) telling Wright that she doesn’t want to be "made a fool of on national TV". The bullish Wright starts a huge row, without taking a step back to inform the mother that she’d be doing great things for her son’s moral, and that if she thinks she’s embarrassing herself, then surely, that’s the message she’s sending to her son? In a strange way, this is what makes this show so rewarding. You don’t have some plumbed BBC cad talking mind-numbing stats… you have one fiery bloke desperate to get kids healthy. Not for his ego, because these kids are dangerously unwell. Next week, it’ll be more of the brilliant same.[Mof Gimmers]
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