TVScope: Sometimes it is not a TV programme that leaves you gobsmacked - but the things that go on around the programme.
Take the new run of the Channel 4 series 10 Years Younger. Last week's first episode featured 42-year-old Heather Williams getting a full makeover which included cosmetic surgery, dentistry, a hairdo, fake tan and all the rest of it. The aim was to take 10 years off her appearance - people questioned on a beach had judged her to be 55.
But just how unbiased and objective is the programme? The question was raised by a visit to the Channel 4 website.
"Why not work some minor miracles on your own look?" it cheerfully asks. "Perhaps you are heading to the sun this winter - read more about laser hair removal or laser vein treatment."
All right, so we're not bothering with objectivity here.
It's when you click into the page about last week's episode that the commercialism gets a bit - pardon the pun - in your face. Here you will find the name, address and telephone number of her cosmetic surgeon, her dentist, her hairdresser and the person who did her make-up. Oh, I almost forgot the people who did her fake tan. And do you want to know which shops supplied Heather's outfits? Not a problem, it's all on the website.
The series, I should add, is sponsored by ROC.
I suppose there's nothing wrong with producing a series groaning under the weight of commercial links but it's important that viewers take this into account when assessing its message.
And then there are the little tricks that help Heather's transformation. Heather is a person who really only looks good when she has a big, big smile on her face. At the start, however, she is devoid of smiles. At the end, following her overhaul, she has a brilliant smile.
Is it unfair to the programme- makers to wonder whether this might be a deliberate strategy to help create a contrast?
At the start of the programme, as mentioned above, a number of holidaymakers are asked to guess her age and they come up with an average age of 55 - 13 years more than her biological age. At the end, the average guess is 41, a year below her biological age.
But so far as this grudging viewer could make out from camera angles, the people who judged her negatively at the start were out of earshot when giving their opinions.
At the end, however, she stood beside the interviewer as people were asked to guess her age. Surely in these circumstances people are far more likely to be kind than when she is out of earshot?
One does not begrudge Heather her transformation. Certainly she had given her body a bit of a battering, healthwise. We were told that in the years following her wedding, she ballooned from a size eight to a size 20.
When she lost five stone at the gym, she was left with excess folds of skin. That she had kept a sunbed in her home for 20 years and had made liberal use of it had the predictable effect on her complexion. And she smoked 20 cigarettes a day. She was also a manager in a London hospital, a job which probably does not do a lot for a person's health either.
The surgeons and the dentist and all the rest of them certainly made a difference to Heather but it seemed to me that the difference was really only apparent when she smiled.
So if you feel in need of a makeover but the man from Channel 4 and his team fail to appear at your door, cheer up. Just put a great big smile on your face. It'll take years off you.
10 Years Younger, Channel 4, Thursday, 12th January, 8pm.
Padraig O'Morain is a journalist and counsellor.