What a cheek

EMBARRASSING Bodies on C4 demonstrated that some people will drop their trousers or whip off their bra in front of the camera in return for medical advice.

Diagnosis Live from the Clinic is the obvious next step, as the team behind that programme go interactive.

Can’t get a doctor’s appointment? Don’t worry. Just keep looking at the telly. Perhaps the Government would like to include the programme in its NHS reforms.

The new show will enable viewers with medical concerns to seek advice and be “seen” by the doctors from the comfort of their own homes during the primetime show.

The studio-based series will use video calling to offer the public appointments with doctors Christian Jessen and Dawn Harper, along with guest specialists, during its live broadcast.

The medics will be arming the caller – and the viewer – with practical advice and information on what treatments and services are available to them, both on the NHS and privately.

“Imagine being able to get an appointment with one of our doctors as the programme is live on air. This is a truly innovative Public Service Broadcasting commission that will take us into the future of health programming,” says Kate Teckman, C4’s commissioning editor.

LAST night, Alan Titchmarsh was talking to Prince Philip, tonight he’s talking to flowers as he introduces coverage from RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the annual horticultural event held in the ground of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, in London.

Titchmarsh will be joined by writer and Gardeners’ World presenter and designer Joe Swift to look at the evolution of the modern mixed border from late Victorian times to today. Exciting stuff, eh?

Designer Nigel Dunnett talks about his garden which was inspired by writer William Robinson, while Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen makes a guest appearance to examine the influence of nature on William Morris, a precursor of the Arts and Crafts movement.

The Chelsea Flower Show is attended by 157,000 visitors each year. By all accounts, the uncharacteristically warm weather enjoyed recently has played havoc with some of the gardens planned for display. Many of the plants bloomed up to a month too early and so lastminute changes have been made, with spring flowers swapped for summer assortments.

Titchmarsh has fronted the BBC’s coverage of the show since 1983 and even won a gold medal in 1985 for a country kitchen garden.

As for his own garden, he says: “There’s lots of grass and stone terraces. I like relatively formal hard lines with lots of billowing planting in between. There’s also lots of topiary – I like clipped things.”

HOW do you get an elephant from one end of a country to the other?

Answer: your guess is as good as ours, but the guys in Giant Animal Moves are certainly going to give it a good go.

Yes, it sounds like the opener of a joke, but for the vets and engineers in this new series, it’s very real. They tackle problems along these lines every week, as they attempt to relocate some of the world’s largest and most dangerous animals.

The experts race against the clock to ensure the cargo arrives at its destination on time, intact and in good health – but the tasks can involve nigh-on impossible engineering and logistical problems.

In this first episode, the team faces the colossal challenge of finding, capturing and moving a herd of elephants across Africa to a special reserve. The giants are tranquilised first before the huge cranes lift them onto trucks to be transported by road to their new home.