Tourette's Rewired (five) Aged 12, And Looking After The Family (C4)

BEFORE our very eyes Sean turned off the device and relived the behaviour that had made his life hell.

He turned from normal human being into a twitching, babbling wreck as his Tourette's, which causes uncontrollable movements and vocal ticks, returned.

This switch was just one remarkable scene in Tourette's Rewired in which cameras showed Keith as he had electrodes implanted in his brain while he was still conscious.

There he was, having a hole drilled in his head and wires poked into his brain while telling neurosurgeon Dr Donald Richardson how he was feeling. This was essential to ensure the wires were placed in the part of the brain that controlled his Tourette's.

With a remote control operating a battery pack implanted in his chest, he's able to switch on the implants and, through deep brain stimulation, switch off his extreme behaviour.

Only a handful of surgeons will perform this operation, not yet approved by the medical establishment. From what we saw, it seemed to work, although carrying out the operation on 13-year-old Brett - the youngest ever patient to be treated for Tourette's in this way - was risky. But it did enable him to go to school and take part in lessons properly for the first time.

Dr Donaldson says that, in the future, brain surgery might be used to treat many other disorders such as manic depression, eating disorders and sexual dysfunction.

The programme raised many issues - not least the morality of changing a person's personality through surgery - just as Aged 12, And Looking After The Family was shocking, heartbreaking and worrying.

Louise, 12, and Jenny, nine, look after their four brothers, aged under six, because parents Paul and Amanda are blind. These young carers run the home, doing everything from getting meals and changing nappies to shopping and putting their brothers to bed.

Their parents obviously love their children and want more - eight in all - but refuse to rely on social services and have only accepted two hours of cleaning a week.

This places what appears to be an intolerable burden on Louise and Jenny, who don't have a hope in hell of a normal childhood as they're looking after the family round the clock.

Paul's attitude can be traced back to being abused by his father who "used me as a punch bag". He said that "I want to give my children what I never had - a loving parent, new shoes, new clothes."

Shots of young children sleeping on the floor, the messy state of the house, the parents smoking around the youngsters and learning that Jenny attempted suicide last year by putting a black plastic bag over her head did little to convince people that this was a suitable environment for raising children.

Jane Treays' sometimes shocking film observed without intruding but wasn't afraid to ask the questions that viewers would have been asking while seeing this family's daily life.

Barbara Dickson, Darlington Civic Theatre

WITH nothing but talent shows and celebrities on ice on the telly, it came as little surprise to see a near sell-out attendance on Saturday night for a top entertainer discarded by TV.

Barbara Dickson followed up last year's celebration of 40 years in showbusiness - when she released the Beatles' interpretation album Nothing's Gonna Change My World - with this concert tour picking out the highlights from her considerable career.

Initially, the stage seems a confusion of stands, speakers, mikes and instruments and you could be forgiven for thinking, on first impression, that her backing band had wandered on stage by mistake. Apart from red-shirted drummer Russell Field, the uniform is heavy duty jacket or knitted cardie. But these are seasoned pros. Troy Donockley, an expert on the Uilleann Pipes, and Dickson's long-time associate Pete Zorn are nimbly picking up and playing a dazzling array of instruments with Brad Lang alternating bass instruments and newcomer Nick Holland on keyboards. All act as backing singers as Dickson herself leads using song, guitar and keyboard.

There's hardly a falter, except for Scottish Dickson demanding that Jonny Wilkinson stops playing for England immediately and return to Newcastle following his destruction of her country's rugger team.

There are also local links in the audience for the singer because two of her sons had brought a party from Ampleforth College to liven up an evening where Dickson went right back to her folk music roots before reminding us of shows like Evita, Blood Brothers and John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert. Dickson promised to return in a year... let's hope that applies to TV as well.

Viv Hardwick