TV review

Revenge: Getting even with your

ex (five)

THE young men who'd volunteered to undertake training based on preparations for the 1944 Normandy landings were surprised when they got their hands on their first lethal weapon - an iron.

They were expected to iron their combat trousers. A few days later, spending the night in the open in temperatures of minus 22, they would have given anything to do the ironing.

This new observational documentary - the BBC prefers not to call it a reality series - sends the recruits on a physical, emotional and psychological journey to teach them (and us) about D-Day army training. The reality of war is brought home by three veterans of the invasion as they watch training and recall their own D-Day experiences, sometimes horrific and sometimes humorous.

The recruits were not much of a wild bunch, just an ordinary group of 18-to 25-year-olds, including students, a factory worker, pizza delivery driver and kitchen designer. They weren't chosen for their physical ability and only one or two actually harboured ambitions of joining the military. All of which helped put yours in their situation and empathise with their suffering.

Three had quit by the end of the first week, not because they'd been voted off by the public or each other. One left because of the cold after a night on Dartmoor.

Through it all the veterans kept cheery. No complaints about the cold from them. Recruits learnt to respect them, and their memories provided a stark reminder of the realities of war.

Marriage is a battlefield too. Revenge: Getting Even With Your Ex adopted a light-hearted attitude to the repercussions of relationship break-ups, although statistics show that 75 per cent of the population is bent on revenge. "The bunny boiler in all of us is alive and kicking," noted the narrator.

Few aggrieved wives take such drastic action as John Wayne Bobbit's, who snipped off a private part. Cindy's revenge on a partner who had a baby with another woman was to cook him dog poo pie, something Nigella has failed to show us on her TV show.

I have to say that when the "red mist" takes over and women seek revenge, their imagination runs wild. One woman put up posters bearing pictures of her husband and his mistress with the words WANTED FOR ADULTERY. Another husband was pursued by his wife screaming abuse at him through a megaphone.

The grosser the act, the better the feeling of satisfaction. Like the wife who peed in a jar of moisturiser used by hubby's new woman and cleaned the toilet with their toothbrushes.

What these women did may have seemed petty, childish and vindictive but it made them feel better. They might even have got a sexual thrill out of it. "When you get a red mist it's as good as an orgasm," said one.