DStv TOP SERIES
Sean Conway: Running Britain Discovery Channel, Channel 121, Thursday, 20:00
I wonder where Sean Conway gets his energy. I can barely imagine running to the end of my street without having a coronary, and in this show Conway will run the entire length of the UK, starting at Land’s End in Cornwall and ending at John O’Groats in Caithness, Scotland — and he’s both swum and cycled that same distance before! Sooner you than me, pal.
Conway may be as British as they come, but he was born in Zimbabwe and went to school in South Africa. Apparently he grew his thick beard to prevent jellyfish from stinging his face during his swim from Land’s End to John O’Groats and he used the publicity from these feats to raise money for the War Child charity.
Anyway, the run is the last leg of this feat called The Ultimate British Triathlon. Conway didn’t have a set course in mind — just a general, that-ish direction when he set out, taking advice from locals as to which way to go and carrying all the supplies he would need, stopping off to resupply when necessary, including a stop off at his mom’s house in Cheltenham on the way. Who’s Doing the Dishes? (Season two)
itv Choice, Channel 123, Monday, 19:05
Have I written about this show before? I honestly can’t remember. When you do this job every week for years it does tend to blur in some instances. Anyway, this is a fairly unique concept as far as cooking shows go. What happens is that four contestants are taken to a celebrity’s home for dinner. They don’t know whose house it is because the celeb doing the cooking isn’t allowed to show themselves until the end.
The contestants have to try to guess from the significance of the courses offered and by snooping around the celebrity’s home who is cooking for them. The contestant who gets it right wins a cash prize — the others get to do the dishes. My Big Fat Fabulous Life (Season two)
TLC Entertainment, Channel 172, Thursday, 20:00
I don’t have anywhere near as long a way to go on my diet as Whitney Thore, but since this is my first earnest effort at weight loss, it does leave me feeling a bit empathic towards her. This reality show chronicles Whitney’s daily life as she attempts to lose weight, battles pre-diabetes, and defies the expected limitations of fat people by riding bicycles, learning martial arts, running marathons and attending dance classes. Blimey. Makes me feel like I should get out there and do something. Fortunately, the feeling passes quickly.
On the Case with Paula Zahn (Season five) Crime + Investigation, Channel 170, Thursday, 21:00
I’ve seen a few of these crime documentary/investigative journalism shows by TV personality Paula Zahn. She seems to deal with concluded cases, trying to shed new light on the evidence by interviewing the investigators, the family of the victim and those convicted of the crime. The case of Heather Strube, a single mother who was gunned down in a parking lot in broad daylight, looks interesting. The immediate suspect was her ex-husband — but the eyewitness accounts describe a suspect who looked nothing like him.