Extreme Monday!

UKTV Style (a channel I would never have dreamed of watching if it hadn't have been for Rachel) has a habit of turning Bank Holiday Monday's into Extreme Mondays; by running back-to-back episodes of one of my favourite non-geek TV programmes: Extreme Makeover - Home Edition (the other being Dog The Bounty Hunter, but I guess, that's a bit geeky!).

Rachel and I don't see eye-to-eye on many of TV choices, but it only took one episode of Extreme Makeover for me to become almost a bigger fan than her. Normally I wouldn't touch makeover or decorating programmes with a bargepole, but this is something special.

Fronted by Ty Pennington - who can euphemistically be described as a "larger than life character" - every week sees the rotating team of craftspeople travel across the United States and build a home for a deserving family. Not decorate the odd room, mind you, but demolish the old property and build from scratch an incredible new home in the space of seven days - while the family are off on vacation (usually Disneyland).

These are always families that have been through dreadful ordeals, from the loss of a father or mother or a child battling cancer, to a career lobster fisherman who lost his arm and a shopkeeper blinded during a hold-up etc. Bring tissues, because as Ty says: "It's going to be emotional."

You'd have to be a very cold-hearted cynic not to come away from an episode of Extreme Makeover with a smile on your face - there really are decent people in the world, after all! And it knocks spots off the half-baked makeover shows we produce in this country - not a sign of an MDF wardrobe or a Blue Peteresque piece of so-called 'art'.

A new series starts tonight - the 'climax' of Extreme Monday - at 10pm.