The BBC aired its last episode of Truth about Food documentary strand yesterday, but you can get a lot of the key content online at the programme homepage, which is excellent, including an option to watch the best clips in your own customised “movie.”

The UK’s Channel 4 also screened a programme about giftedness Thursday. From an overtraining point of view, the most notable part showed a 10-year-old already admitted to the Royal College of Music purportedly suffering from acute tendonitis of the fingers, with possible long-term damaging consequences to what would be a promising adult career. Pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim, himself regarded as a child prodigy, once remarked (I paraphrase) that he had never seen a child prodigy, but he had met a lot of parents! The programme pointed out that an early talent, in the wrong hands, can lead to an overdevelopment of the faculty that is most pronounced, leading to the neglect of other areas.

The most borrowed books from UK libraries are Gillian McKeith’s You are What you Eat, and Paul McKenna’s Change your life in Seven Days. The BBC’s Today programme quotes the Public Lending Rights organization. Commentators suggested a social shift toward a quick-fix culture. Both McKeith and McKenna have been subject to press claims they possessed dubious academic qualifications.

McKeith’s particular line of shame and bully seems symptomatic of a common reality TV approach to self-improvement.

McKenna now is a bona-fide PhD, according to Wikipedia, and provided support to comedian David Walliams extraordinary cross-channel charity swim. Walliams trained at Bath University pool.

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