I'm Alright Jack (BBC2)

THIS began as yet another life swap show in which someone switches places to experience a completely different side of life. Andrew Diaper, a 32-year-old City worker earning a six-figure salary, was to spend a week as a volunteer worker at a hostel for the homeless in London.

There was much jollity about abandoning his champagne lifestyle to help out in a homeless hostel catering for people other hostels reject as too hostile.

His friends thought the plan contained "all of his nightmares rolled into one", considering his low threshold of tolerance and forgiveness. His wife hoped it would make him more compassionate.

This was a man whose only experience of homeless people was stepping over them in the street and who saw no need to do charity work as he paid a lot of tax to have that done for him.

You couldn't help but feel for him as he entered Graham House and the smell, a mixture of urine and alcohol, hit him. He began gagging. Andrew spent a lot of the week gagging.

He also couldn't take sleeping in a camp bed in a small flat near the hostel, moving into a hotel, where he luxuriated in a bubble-filled bath.

But his initial feeling of fear entering a hostel for people who were often drunk, aggressive and violent did change. He was good at talking to residents, even if he did wash his hands an awful lot. He seemed genuinely interested in seeing the new home that Rose, having overcome her problems, was due to move into.

Hostel manager Tony needed to be as tolerant of Andrew as he did of the homeless, finally telling him off for making such a fuss about the smell as his remarks were upsetting both staff and residents.

There was no sudden conversion to being a full-time charity volunteer. Andrew realised his limitations. Talking to residents became easier, but the smell never went away. Working among those with not only drink problems but incontinence and lice clearly wasn't for Andrew. He admitted finding it desperately difficult to get used to, much the same as most of us would react, I suspect. As one of the residents so rightly put it: "It's another planet".

Andrew couldn't comprehend why anyone would want to work in such an environment, despite Tony and his fellow workers saying they found it rewarding and challenging.

He came to understand more working the night on street rescue. Finding 83-year-old George, faced with sleeping rough in temperatures below freezing, and securing him a room for the night did give him a sense of achievement.

Much of Andrew's behaviour was explained by a last minute confession that he'd seen alcohol abuse first-hand in his life. And, while admitting he wasn't cut out to work in the hostel, he did decide to channel his communication talents into fund-raising for Graham House.

What started out as yet another reality show finally showed more heart than most of the genre.