A Place In The Sun (C4)

America's Fattest City (C4)

The State Of Texas (C4)

HOUSTON, we have a problem. Not in space but down on earth in the state of Texas, where size really does matter. Two-thirds of Texans are overweight, and a third can be classified as obese.

Investigating the fattest people in the fattest country in the world was part of C4's season devoted to President George W Bush's home state.

You feared the place was so overcrowded that Amanda Lamb wouldn't be able to find any space for Gary and Karen Delaney, a couple from Crewe looking for somewhere to live in Texas in A Place In The Sun.

Happily, she knew about the Gulf coast of Texas, one of the US's best-kept secrets with beaches, boating and year-round sunshine. Property is 15 per cent cheaper than elsewhere in the US, enabling the couple to get a good deal with their £80,000 budget. My worry was they'd be refused entry for not being big enough to live in a state where fat is normal.

Weighing in at 44 stone - not a misprint but a sad fact of life - Diane cannot walk and needs constant attention because of her size. She may have showed a photograph of herself wearing a stretch lace catsuit with nothing underneath that she considered sexy, but there was no doubting that she needed to shed weight for the sake of her health.

Like many Texans, she's in denial about her obesity and declared her unwillingness to try to lose weight. Nobody was willing to point out that if she doesn't eat her words and slim down, she'll be dead before long.

Bob, a mere 19 stone, eats out seven days a week. He likes all-you-can-eat restaurants and diners that give you a free meal if you can eat a 32oz steak. His attitude is indicative of the Texan mentality which serves up jumbo-size portions in restaurants. We also witnessed Bob devour a monster 5,000 calorie burger to earn his picture a place on the wall of fame in an eating house.

No wonder 35 per cent of schoolchildren are overweight. It's feared they will be the first generation who'll have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The price of being fat isn't just brief lives - the medical cost of obesity in Texas alone adds up to $4bn a year.

The Delaneys might also want to watch Christopher Hitchens's assessment of The State Of Texas before moving across the Atlantic. Here was a place, he said, where you could call someone a cowboy and they wouldn't consider it an insult.

Our guide kitted himself out in cowboy hat and boots ("I started to feel very masculine") before embarking on his tour of a state where, by 2008, Spanish speakers will be in the majority. Clearly, George W realised the importance of getting immigrants to vote for him. During the presidential campaign, he boasted proudly of the Latino blood that flows in the Bush family.

Hitchens pointed out that the power of Hispanic Texans is growing - but not, he might have added, as fast as too many of its citizens.