Miriam Margolyes will have her life-long perception about being overweight challenged in a new two-part BBC Two series about the UK’s obesity problem.
The Call The Midwife actress, 78, who says she is “disgusted” with her own body and has worried about her weight for her whole life, travels the country to discover why the nation is at its most overweight ever despite the wealth of information available about healthy lifestyles.
The series, called Miriam’s Big Fat Adventure, will see the film and TV star meet people who are changing the perception around what it means to be overweight, as well as those who are taking extreme and sometimes controversial measures to shed the pounds.
In the programme, she attends one of the UK’s first plus-size dance classes with 25 “big, proud women embracing the joys of twerking”, while also delving in the “societal stigma that comes with being overweight”.
She hopes to understand what impact being obese has had on other people, as well as how the rest of society views them.
She also speaks to people who are facing serious health problems linked to obesity, and meets a body confidence activist and plus size model who invites her to a body positivity talk for children “that challenges society’s notion of beautiful and encourages them to be proud of their bodies”.
Margolyes said: “I’m happy with who I am, I’m happy with my face, I’m happy with my life, but I am disgusted by my body. I loathe it.
“If I could migrate my whole personality and my face onto another body, I would be delighted!
“I’ve worried about my weight all my life and I assumed that everyone my size would feel the same.
“I wanted to see how people in the UK feel about our growing sizes, and what lengths people are going to, to try and deal with it.”