Before I even start with the review of Losing It: Griff Rhys Jones on Anger (BBC Two, Tuesday, 23 September, 9pm) I should point out that throughout, I kept noticing that Griff Rhys Jones had incredibly long nails which need a trimming. Right, now I’ve got that out of the way… no… hold on. I have another weird gripe. Throughout the entire show, there seemed to be a weird smudge along the bottom of the frame… like someone had wiped Vaseline along the bottom of the camera. Anyway, let’s review and, no, I’m not angry.

Making a show on anger is no mean feat. As the show pointed out, people are more ready to talk about their sex lives… even the failure of their sex lives… rather than talk about their anger issues. Even though the Western World is a place filled with self-help and people continually talking about how they’ve overcome some personal obstacle or other, anger is one of the things that generally gets swept under the rug. Of course, this is dangerous. Weirdly enough, earlier in the day, I’d watched an episode of The Simpsons where Homer represses his anger and ends up with minging boils. Fact is, we can laugh at anger, but can we deal with it?

Anger seems to be more prevalent in Modern Britain. It’s hardly surprising really as there’s a plethora of irritating things. Every single aspect of driving seems to make people lose their rags. We all rely on computers more than ever, which in itself, brings The Blue Screen of Death, websites not loading up quickly enough, corrupted files, programs generally not doing as they’re told… then you have kids, sitting on planes with children, bad service, late trains and everyone’s favourite source of ire, politics. We as a nation, can be very highly strung.

So with that, Griff Rhys Jones went in search of his own anger and was incredibly candid about the whole thing, which was refreshing for a TV show. I have to say, I didn’t expect it. I imagined he’d probe away at others getting them to talk about it. Thankfully, he was honest enough about his own foibles, which meant others were forthcoming too. In fact, his choice of talking heads (really, it could’ve easily been ‘ranting heads’) were superb and varied.

One bizarre moment in the show featured Big Brother contestant and Posh wannabe, Channelle, who showed that, when you don’t deal with your own anger, you can become rather weird. Of course, we all know about her screaming and slanging matches in the BB house, but the fact is, she’s even weirder out of it. As Griff gently tried to get her to open up, she became coldly confrontational she is. Her aggression was steely and prickled. She showed that, to deal with anger, you have to hold your hands up and say “sometimes, I’m completely wrong”.

Heston Blumenthal‘s appearance told a tale about a bout of road rage which saw him ramming a van off the road and trying to kick the door off the hinges of his car so he could “kill” the other driver. Heston Blumenthal seems like such a bloody nice bloke normally… and now we know why! He’s the mellowest chef because he’s busy trying to kill people in down time… a bit like Dexter.

This led Griff to make an excellent point by noting that angry people generally think that they’re on some crusade to tell the world how to do things properly. Griff calls it a “rebellious anger… the necessary fuel for conviction”. Of course, he also admits that he’s “still in denial” about the whole anger thing. Oddly, Griff Rhys Jones is seen heartily laughing at his own “futile outbursts”, which, in turn, makes him look completely barking mad.

Naturally, this wasn’t just some TV therapy for a bunch of TV brats. The underlying message was subtle, but clear. Fact is, the show pointed out that it’s not about what anger necessarily is, but rather, what it does. Anger is such a selfish act and often manifests itself when someone needs to unload. What people, and Griff included in his frequent candid moments, failed to recognise that once someone unloads, they feel better. Everyone else who has to act as “blotting paper” have to carry it around with them for longer and, worse still, live in fear of future rants. The darker side of anger saw the most appalling fact in the show; 1 in 3 nurses have experienced violence at the hands of a patient.

All in all, this was a wonderful and fascinating show which continues with Griff looking at ways to solve his anger issues. It was clear that Griff hadn’t dealt with his own fury before this show, so it was great to see him stunned at his own behaviour, most of which he’d clearly forgotten after unloading. So now, we’ll get to see stage two. Cracking stuff.