Without Limits: Vietnam
BBC ONE, 8.00PM
“We must look like the circus has come to town,” announces biker Andy at the beginning of this enthralling, warmhearted and eye-opening travelogue. The premise is straightforward: six people with a range of disabilities travel across Vietnam in convoy on modified motorbikes and a specially adapted Jeep. But what marks Without
Limits out is the honesty with which the participants discuss living with their disabilities. “I am envious watching them,” says Steve – who broke his neck after falling over a balcony and is now in a wheelchair – as the others prepare food. Andy goes further, speaking of his missing arm: “Pain is my friend, my enemy, my lover, my everything.”
Yet there is also laughter as the participants bond over the sense of freedom that they feel being with people who understand their situations and slowly open up about their frustrations and fears. For some, those fears are deeper rooted than others. Mary, who has dwarfism, states: “I wouldn’t say I’d conquered much,” as she talks movingly of her depression and the cycling that helps her. The scene in which she borrows a child’s bike and heads cheering for the hills is magnificent. Sarah Hughes