Britain's Fat Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Documentary series exploring the obesity crisis. Britain is now the most obese country in western Europe. Two-thirds of us are already overweight and there's no doubt that our poor diet and lack of exercise is slowly killing us, as well as crippling the NHS. After smoking, obesity is the next biggest cause of premature death in the UK. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is on a mission to try and do something about it. In this new series, he pushes some of the biggest food companies and restaurant chains to become more transparent about what they are selling and he asks the government what they are doing to tackle this health crisis. Hugh also sees if it is possible to change the eating habits of a whole city by challenging the people of Newcastle to lose 100,000lbs in a year. Bad eating habits start when we are children, to prove this is true Hugh asks a group of seven-year-olds to do the weekly supermarket shop without their parents. Unsurprisingly, most of the kids head for the cereal section, where they pick from any number of brightly coloured, highly sugared breakfast cereals. But do their parents realise how much sugar is in the boxes? Hugh also challenges the big brands over their lack of transparency when it comes to their cereal labels. All the supermarket own-brand cereals carry traffic-light labelling, which clearly shows in red, green or amber how much sugar is in the box - so why don't the market leaders? In Newcastle, Hugh kicks off his ambitious project to see how much weight a city can lose over the course of a year. But after launching 'Newcastle Can' in the city centre, a passer-by stops Hugh to tell him that he is talking to the wrong people. If he really wants to make significant change, he needs to go and talk to people who live more deprived parts of the city to understand the challenges they face. Finally, Hugh meets a local bus driver who wants to lose weight but is addicted to snacking. This encounter encourages him to look at the i

Britain is already the fattest country in western Europe and if current trends continue, more than half of us will be obese by 2050. Two-thirds of us are already overweight and there is no doubt that our poor diet and lack of exercise is slowly killing us - as well as crippling the NHS. After smoking, obesity is the next biggest cause of premature death in the UK. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is on a mission to try and do something about this health crisis. He is going to challenge some of the biggest food companies and restaurant chains to be more honest about what they are selling. He asks the government what they are doing to tackle this crisis. And he is going to see if it is possible to change the eating habits of a whole city by challenging the people of Newcastle to lose 100,000lbs in a year. Hugh is surprised to learn bottles of fruit juice and smoothies can contain as much sugar as a can of fizzy pop. Most people he meets in the street have no idea. He is also confused that the labels on the bottles seem to suggest that anything up to 330ml is a single portion size, when in fact the government recommends not drinking any more than 150ml of juice or smoothies a day. Hugh also turns the spotlight on our most popular high street restaurant chains, because children are eating out twice as much as they did in the 1970s. He challenges the restaurants to reduce the amount of sugar in their puddings, to put calorie information on their children's menus and to stop selling bottomless fizzy drinks. When he lets them know there is a window of opportunity to do something before a league table is published, ranking 25 restaurant chains from best to worst, ten make very significant changes. Between them they are now selling 72 million healthier children's meals a year. Meanwhile up in Newcastle it is six months since Hugh launched his attempt to change the eating habits of a whole city. It has got off to a slow start but after staging a big exercise event on the

In this episode, Hugh learns that there are some simple and obvious changes which could be made to GPs surgeries that could help prevent obesity-related diseases - like putting weighing scales in every GP waiting room and making it mandatory to weigh every patient before they see the doctor. Hugh arranges a trial in Bristol, with dramatic results. In Newcastle, Hugh meets Janet, who signed up to Newcastle Can but is finding it difficult to lose any weight. Hugh wants to see if she can make changes to her lifestyle by getting outside of her comfort zone, so they head to the beach to go surfing. At the end of Hugh's year-long mission to put the city on a diet, he meets up with some of the people who have already achieved life-changing weight loss and discovers if his ambitious 100,000lb target has been reached. To learn what the government is doing about the situation, Hugh heads to the Conservative Party Conference, where he has been invited to speak about obesity - but he is frustrated in his attempts to get an audience with Jeremy Hunt. So with the help of Jamie Oliver, Hugh comes up with a bold plan to try and improve the health of our nation once and for all.