WITHOUT LIMITS: VIETNAM
BBC1, 8pm
THIS short series has been a wonderful tonic. If you were feeling glum, bored, dissatisfied or lazy, then this show has either made you count your blessings and feel glad, or it has inspired you to get up and do something because life is so very short and precarious.
In the concluding episode, our six adventurers, each with their own disabilities, make their way across Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh trail, and it has all been refreshingly free of any patronising political correctness. You’ll hear shouts like, “Come on you cripple, get yourself moving!” and everyone just grins and gets on with it.
Tonight they reach Quang Tri Province, which is still scarred and dangerous from the Vietnam War, its ground peppered with unexploded bombs as well as landmines. One of the participants, Vicky, who lost her leg in an accident at Alton Towers, meets a local man who lost his to a landmine which exploded in the garden. He gets by with a cheap wooden leg, whereas Vicky’s new leg cost £70,000.
AMBULANCE
BBC1, 9pm
MAYBE this series should be shown in schools as a kind of public information film?
It might teach us from a young age to be hugely grateful for the NHS, and show us why we must guard it fiercely. It might also dismantle the urge in any daft kids to make hoax calls to 999, as we see the impact of one of those tonight.
The cameras follow the hectic, endless, stressful work of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, from the paramedics on the streets to those in the air ambulance. As well as showing us how invaluable the NHS is, it provides painful little stories of ordinary people across the region.
And as the crew try to help toddlers, old ladies and suicidal patients, the lines are flooded by drunks as the pubs and clubs start to empty.
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