Aftab tries to lose weight on Channel 4's 'The Shut-Ins: Britain's Fattest People' Photo: Channel 4
Successful in its outcome was Shut-Ins: Britain’s Fattest People (Channel 4), a poignant study of the lives of two morbidly obese people attempting to transform their lives. It opened with a startling statistic: there may be as many as 50,000 people eating themselves to death in their homes.
Sharon Hill, 33, and Aftab Ali, 31, are in this category. Hill’s story was heartbreaking – she went on her first diet aged eight, met husband Andrew in an internet chat room for admirers of big women, and now weighs over 46 stone. “About four years ago I walked to the Co-op and back,” she sighed. “Some days I hurt so much, all I want to do is cry.” Ali’s, too, was incredibly sad: at 39 stone, he spends his days and nights in an armchair, cared for by his 21-year-old wife, Millie. “I don’t know much about what’s happening out there,” he said, gazing wistfully out the window.
The purpose of the programme wasn’t entirely clear – but it seemed that, in return for letting cameras into their lives, Hill and Ali were offered transformative treatment. Hill had bariatric surgery (which resulted in her losing a quarter of her body weight) and Ali got counselling and a personal trainer (helping him lose six stone).
The show started as a documentary about obesity but ended as a touching story about love, relationships and identity. There were enough grim clips of binge-eating to remind us of the root message (ie food does not make you happy), but more interesting were Hill’s relationship with her husband’s daughter, desperate for her to lose weight, Millie’s journey as a dutiful wife, and both couples taking tentative steps towards recapturing romance. The final scene, showing the empty chairs where they once sat, helpless and unable to stand, was a striking, fitting conclusion.
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Source: Shut-Ins: Britain's Fattest People, review: 'a touching story' Retrieved from https://socialdashboard.com/news/shut-ins-britains-fattest-people-review-a-touching-story
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