Doctors Dawn Harper, Christian Jessen and Pixie McKenna. Photograph: Channel 4
Illness is a messy business. When bodies malfunction, few invalids waft serenely away with Hollywood cancer. Nor do they go prettily into the light after a delicate bout of consumption. Sanitised hospital shows such as Holby City frequently show guts and gore, but we seldom see the scaly patches, boils and incontinence affecting more of us than storylines such as being shot by rogue elements of the secret service.
Real people leak. They produce toxic gas capable of devastation in a subway attack, and their toenails go yellow, but for some strange reason, they are ashamed of this. Channel 4's Embarrassing Illnesses, on all this week, is on a mission to bring real sickness, in all its weeping, green-tinged glory, out into the open.
The format is simple. Three televisually attractive doctors (Pixie McKenna, Dawn Harper and Christian Jessen) hold a clinic. Then, with astonishing bravery and generosity, the featured patients present with body parts that are mouldy and about to drop off, oozing puss, or located in a region we coyly shield from acquaintances unless they've bought us dinner first. (Having said that, the man whose penis was so large that surface skin split whenever he had an erection was just showing off.)
For a more discreet diagnosis, viewers can email snaps of their runny, disfiguring afflictions. (NB: Check the address. Imagine the consequences of accidentally sharing your scab-encrusted penis or prolapsed womb with your fiance's parents.) Occasionally, the hosts go on a public walkabout, discussing STDs, skin cancer and post-natal stretch marks (how odd we are that all are equally taboo).
The charm and frankness of the doctors is amazing. Even when confronting a haemorrhoid that resembles a conjoined twin emerging from a stranger's bottom like Kuato, the enigmatic rebel leader in Total Recall, they never scream "Holy mother of God! Get a load of this!" for which they deserve our praise and admiration.
Sam Wollaston didn't like its last series. But to my mind, Embarrassing Illnesses is kind-hearted, inspiring, and hopeful, with a warts-and-all approach that may encourage viewers to seek treatment for bowel cancer rather than dying of shame.
