What to watch
Fashion’s Dirty Secrets: Stacey Dooley Investigates
BBC ONE, 9.00PM; NI, 10.45PM; WALES, 10.40PM
When not enveloped in sequins and cutting a rug on Strictly Come Dancing, Stacey Dooley works as a highly reputed investigative journalist for BBC Three. In this new documentary, she sets out to tackle a scandal that deserves a wider audience, given that it comes as a direct result of the West’s appetite for cheap fashion.
Dooley travels to the developing world, looking into the environmental damage caused by the manufacture of cotton garments that are destined for our shops. She sees how Kazakhstan’s gigantic Aral Sea has all but dried up because the water has been diverted for the use of the garment industry; the result has been an ecological catastrophe. She also witnesses the serious health problems caused to local residents by the toxic chemicals pumped by garment factories into Indonesia’s River Citarum.
Dooley is an energetic presence, boldly naming the UK high street brands that wouldn’t talk to her about their failure to check factories overseas. She may not have the influence of (say) David Attenborough, who urged us to use fewer plastics in Blue Planet II, but her message is just as urgent – even if it takes the joy out of shopping. Vicki Power