Comedian Harry Hill says, possibly ironically, that Freaky Eaters is the best thing on television and constantly lampoons it on his TV Burp programme with yells such as “hoops!” or “chippy chips!” to the camera whenever he mentions it.
Freaky Eaters centres on a different person each week that has a restricted diet, such as only eating biscuits and avoiding everything else. During each episode a team of experts (Charlotte Watts, Dr Pixie McKenna and psychological coach Felix Economakis) and the person’s family try to help them overcome their diet problem and eat more healthily within four weeks.
Addicted to Burgers and Bacon
Series 3 kicked off with 29-year-old Niquita whose diet consisted mainly of burgers, bacon and beans. In a year it was revealed she eats 300 rashers of bacon, 1,875 slices of bread, 200 cans of beans and sausages, 60kg of chips and 250 burgers.
The show always starts with the emotionally manipulative scene where the subject is sat in a cinema while a film of teary friends and family urging them to change their ways. Things didn’t start of well as after a blood test Niquita was told that she could contract gout and kidney stones if she doesn’t add more variety and cut out the fatty foods.
Not-so Freaky Eaters
What is usually discovered is that the reason behind their strange diet is due to some deep psychological reason and the experts do have good advice and techniques on how to improve their lives. Unlike You Are What You Eat, with the horrible Gillian McKeith, there is some genuine science behind it.
During a talk with Felix it was revealed that her problem was based around her losing confidence after being attacked as a teenager. The team were able to build up her self-belief with meeting strangers at a dog track (not as seedy as it sounds) and singing on her own in front of a crowd, and eventually she was able finish a meal with her family.
It does seem like sometimes the producers do run low on people willing to make fools of themselves with genuinely strange eating habits so they have to resort to those who eat only meat and potatoes which is hardly as “freaky” as a man who eats nothing but cheese and Hula Hoops. Fair enough it’s not good for your health to lack a bit of variety but meat and potatoes is the standard for many meals and can range from anything from lamb chops and mash to steak and chips.
Freaky Eaters will give Harry Hill more Material
Whilst being far from the best thing on TV Freaky Eaters is almost completely harmless and inoffensive. Unlike other so-called self help shows there’s no bullying or humiliation from the host or a food fascist agenda like Jamie Oliver and co. routinely take part in. Sure there is a bit of a freakshow quality and unfair amusement being drawn from the addict but this is incidental, it’s not like they are constantly picked on.
Ultimately it’s quite boring TV but in the end the self help experience is an optimistic one. The main positive with Freaky Eaters coming back is that at least it will give Harry Hill five minutes of good material every week.
Freaky Eaters is on BBC Three every Tuesday at 8pm or can be seen again on BBC iPlayer.
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