What Makes Alastair Campbell Run? (five)

Nip/Tuck (C4)

Spin used to be something you did with records. That was BC - Before Campbell. So any documentary about Alastair Campbell, the master of spin in the Blair government, must be viewed with a certain amount of scepticism.

Strictly speaking, that should be former master of spin but the very format used in What Makes Alastair Campbell Run showed a degree of ingenuity in getting across the character of its subject.

This was no face-to-face Paxman-style interrogation of Campbell about his life and times. On-camera interviews and voiceover narrative were layered onto an account of the seven months he trained for the London Triathlon to raise money for Leukaemia Research.

There were glimpses of home life, a confession about his nervous breakdown and drinking problem, Neil Kinnock saying what a good chap he was, and a guest appearance from Tony Blair.

He made no apologies for anything. He's clearly no great lover of journalists, which is odd as he used to be one. The media may have it in for him but he doesn't give a toss about what they think.

He admitted to being forceful, abrasive and expressing points forcibly but that wasn't the side on view in this documentary as he trained to swim a mile in open water, cycle 25 miles and complete a six-mile run without stopping.

All very commendable, especially as he was at pains to tell us that he was "useless on a bike as a kid" and was "not a very good swimmer". Was he going for the sympathy vote or being genuine? It's difficult to tell when a man renowned for spinning is talking. Rather like the boy who cried wolf, anything he says is likely to be dismissed as twisting things to his own ends.

He tells a good John Prescott joke but shows little sign of a sense of humour, apart from the time he had his nervous breakdown and ended up in a police cell. "Would you like a drink?," asked a kindly copper.

"A bottle of champagne," replied Campbell.

The heroes - if you can call cosmetic surgeons heroes - in the exquisitely-shaped Nip/Tip are concerned with appearance too. "Tell me what you don't like about yourself," is their standard question to would-be patients, but not one, unfortunately, asked of Campbell.

The series combines graphic operations with explicit sex scenes in a caring, sharing sort of way. It also offers contraceptive advice. One tip was to "teabag your testicles in a hot tub" before sex to make the sperm harmless.

I hope Matt, teenage son of one surgeon, took this advice before his threesome with his cheerleader girlfriend and her girlfriend, who's allergic to latex and only able to accept the real thing in a sexual situation.

Matt nobly volunteered to fill in. "Help me make her satisfied so I can keep her and I'll satisfy you," his girlfriend told him. It was an offer he couldn't refuse and a triatholon that didn't need seven months training.