By David Saunders| UPDATED: 05:28, 17 February 2020
Miriam’s Big Fat Adventure is a new two-part series coming to BBC Two.
Miriam Margolyes loves her life but loathes her body. Given the choice, she’d happily swap it for Claudia Winkleman’s – but she knows that’s never going to happen.
Miriam also sees no point in shying away from the word fat. In her words, she has been fat ever since she can remember – it’s overshadowed her life. Now aged 78, she knows time to do something about it is running out.
In this brand new series Miriam travels the country to discover why, despite so much information about healthy lifestyles, our nation is at its most overweight ever. Miriam herself has found ways to approach being larger than her peers throughout her life which mainly involve being loud and frank about her size, but she wants to understand what impact being obese has on other people as well as how the rest of society views them.
>
“I’ve worried about my weight all my life and I assumed that everyone my size would feel the same.”
Miriam meets people fighting back against their size who are facing mental and physical struggles, and who are taking drastic measures to lose weight. She delves into the societal stigma that comes with being overweight, and speaks to people who are facing serious health problems linked to obesity.
With the pressure to achieve the ideal body so ingrained, Miriam meets people turning to extreme and sometimes controversial lengths, such as surgery, as a solution to their weight concerns.
Being ‘fat and happy’ goes against everything Miriam ever thought possible, yet she on her journey she meets people who challenge her life-long perception. Body confidence activist and plus size model Trina invites Miriam to a body positivity talk for children that challenges society’s notion of beautiful and encourages them to be proud of their bodies.
Miriam agrees to attend one of the UK’s first plus-size dance classes with 25 big, proud women embracing the joys of twerking and eventually encouraging Miriam to do the same! It’s a life-changing experience which makes Miriam question the complex topic of obesity – is there a ‘one size fits all’ solution?
Miriam Margolyes says: “I’m happy with who I am, I’m happy with my face, I’m happy with my life, but I am disgusted by my body. I loathe it. If I could migrate my whole personality and my face onto another body, I would be delighted! I’ve worried about my weight all my life and I assumed that everyone my size would feel the same.
I wanted to see how people in the UK feel about our growing sizes, and what lengths people are going to, to try and deal with it.”