I was livid... being fat is nothing to brag about!

Who Are You Calling Fat? BBC2, Monday/Tuesday

Seven Worlds, One Planet BBC1, Sunday

Pulling With My Parents RTÉ2, Monday

Ireland’s Fittest Family RTÉ One, Sunday

The Great British Bake Off: T he Final Channel 4, Tuesday

Seething. Absolutely seething. That’s how I was for most of the two episodes of BBC2’s Who Are You Calling Fat?, which brought eight people together – they variously called themselves ‘fat’, ‘plus size’, or ‘living with obesity’ – to discuss the issues around their weight. It was a good idea, badly executed, because the majority of the screen time was given over to a woman called Victoria, who insisted fat was a political issue. She has turned the promotion of so-called body positivity into a business, and her contention was that fat people never should diet. To do so, she seemed to believe, was a betrayal that somehow played into the hands of those who believe everyone should be a uniform size.

When told by another in the group that losing weight was, for him, a health issue, she made the startling statement, unchallenged, that the science around obesity is bogus. That’s when I lost it. As someone who was seriously overweight and subsequently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and then lost five stone, I can attest all too well to the fact the science is far from bogus, because even though I’ve put too much weight back on, my bloods are well within normal range and there’s no damage to my eyes or nerve extremities.

To underline the dangers of diabetes, a man who ignored his diagnosis and lost the lower half of one leg, and a toe on the other foot, came to talk to the group. As he was speaking, the very passive-aggressive Victoria ate a big slice of cake, rolled her eyes, and then just walked out, an astonishing display of ignorance and rudeness.

The only plus point came when a woman called Babs, a binge eater who ate for comfort, resisted Victoria’s efforts to induct her into what bordered on a cult and decided to lose weight for her health. Everyone has to do what’s best for her or himself, and the final take from the programme was a simple one. Whether it’s slim people telling you to lose weight, or fat people telling you not to, the only person in the equation that matters is yourself.

Wanting to live longer might, of course, be pointless if there’s nothing to live for. There is a lot of alarmism around climate change at the moment and here again we have to listen to the science, because much of that concern is justified. In the first of a new series looking at the continents one by one, David Attenborough delivered sobering facts about the effects of a rise in temperature on the Antarctic, where the ice shelf gets smaller by the year and the complex interaction of various life forms in threatened. Seven Worlds,

One Planet suffered, though, for focusing on creatures we’ve seen many times before in Attenborough’s company, especially penguins, which have been on so often, half of them probably have agents at this stage, and spend the worst of the winter in their beachfront condos in Miami.

As always, though, the footage was magnificent, and the message ultimately was brought home by one of the cameramen. Looking at a beach in South Georgia, he broke down in tears as he pondered the fact that this remarkable landscape and all the animals dependent on it might one day disappear – and that day might come sooner than we think. When I saw the promos for Pulling

With My Parents, I thought it would be cheap television exploiting the vulnerable. The premise is that young people looking for love on dating apps or in person hand over responsibility to their mams and dads to choose partners for them, a practice very common in many parts of the world but frowned on here.

As it happened, the programme is a delight, with mostly unshockable parents still absolutely agog at the explicitness of what is posted online, including nude photos and very direct descriptions of what sexual practices the potential date favours. This might have been prurient, but with warm and funny narration by Emmet Kirwan, it proved a delight, celebrating the wisdom of parents who know their children better than anyone else.

While some families are looking for love, others are looking for success in Ireland’s Fittest Family, which returned his week with a new challenge called Rampage. It is an uphill obstacle course laid out on the artificial ski slope in Kilternan in Co. Dublin, and it is an absolute grueller. I know that ski slope well, because my family were members of what was the Pat Quinn Club back in the Seventies, and even walking up it unhindered is a challenge. Having to negotiate rat pipes, crawl nets and a tarpaulin covered in oil while doing so looked horrendous, but it proved perfect bank holiday Sunday viewing. It reminded me that we all have challenges, though fortunately the only one I faced while watching was whether to open a merlot or a cabernet sauvignon.

Tuesday saw the final of this year’s

Great British Bake Off, when the clear favourite Steph, a four-time winner of the weekly master baker accolade, fell to pieces just like her twice-baked soufflé and challenger David nipped in at the death to steal the prize with an astonishing array of cakes made to look like sausage rolls and blue cheese. Perhaps someone should send these glorious nibbles round to Victoria so she can munch her way through the lot when someone else is pointing out the very real and scientifically proven health risks of overeating.

Who Are You Calling Fat?

This was a good idea, badly executed, as the show was taken over by one passive-aggressive participant

Pulling With My Parents

If you are prudish, steer clear, but this was a show full of laughter

Seven Worlds, One Planet

It’s terrible to say but there’s a bit of climate change fatigue setting in

The Great British Bake Off: The Final

David deserved to win... aided by a fall from grace by Steph

Ireland’s Fittest Family

Only challenge I faced was whether to open the merlot or cab sav