Where The Heart Is (ITV1): Backpackers' Nightmares (five): A MAN who climbed Everest is crippled with arthritis.

His student daughter arrives home pregnant. Worst still, the father is the person he blames for his son's death in a climbing accident. And, oh yes, the supermarket is out of turkeys.

This bird shortage is the least of the worries in Where The Heart Is, as Skelthwaite locals prepare to celebrate Christmas.

Everywhere people are ready with a mince pie and advice. When Jodie screams at her sick father: "He's the father of my bay-bee and I love him - get out!", you know they're going to kiss and make up before the end credits. After, of course, Jodie has given birth in a barn (well, it is Christmas).

Just as predictable is that someone, usually one of the nurses, will say something along the lines of: "Kids don't mark their parents out of ten, they just love them".

Women are dependable and understanding, men are useless at everything except drinking. Their contribution is minimal - as it's explained: "All men love Christmas. They stagger home Christmas Eve with a few tins of beer and scrag end of the mistletoe".

Where The Heart Is Christmas special was overloaded with good cheer, not an accusation that could be levelled at Backpackers' Nightmares. As the title suggested, this recounted the horrors that befall some of these 200,000 young travellers each year.

Much is simply their own fault. They don't find out about the place where they're heading, ignore local customs and take risks that they wouldn't dream of doing at home.

Tom Griffths, founder of gapyear.com, reported that 25 per cent of young people were either uninsured or under-insured. Needing medical treatment could bankrupt them and their families.

Several stories concerned unexpected encounters with local wildlife. Gail Donaldson went for a walk alongside the Zambesi river, to the jungle to avoid a hippo and ended up in a clearing where paw prints and bones lay around. Spotting a lioness, she ran for her life.

Martin Richardson wasn't so lucky and has the scars to prove it. He was fulfilling his dreams of swimming with dolphins in the Red Sea. Suddenly a shark attacked and took three lumps out of his back. Two more bites and Martin was floating like he was dead, which turned out to be the best thing he could have done. The shark backed off.

His injuries were horrific. Jets of blood were pumping out of his back. His flesh was leafed open and friends who pulled him from the water could see his liver, kidneys and spine.

As most backpackers are intelligent people, you wondered why they jumped into cars claiming to be taxis and accepted offers from strange men to lead them up mountains. Once in the middle of nowhere, "guides" demanded money to get them back to safety.

Tracey Davies was horrified to find people spitting at her in the street in India, until she realised her skimpy top and shorts were considered offensive in that culture. Later, she let a man give her a head massage in her hotel room. The lights went out and he continued massaging, standing behind her. Suddenly Tracey felt "this thing jabbing into her back". It wasn't his finger.

Published: 24/12/2003