ABC2's blog

4:05pm – Tuesday, January 8 on ABC2

Seven-year-old Charlie and his feisty little sister, Lola, are back on ABC4Kids.

Follow Charlie and Lola as they deal with the numerous dilemmas that every small child encounters – dealing with your first wobbly tooth, staying neat and tidy for your first school photograph, dislike of spiders or simply wishing you were bigger. These little stumbling blocks spiral into a succession of imaginative games, role-play and flights of fancy (normally invented by Charlie) to coax his spirited little sister Lola around to seeing things in a more reasoned way.

7:30pm – Saturday, January 12 on ABC2

Think Braveheart and you will undoubtedly picture Mel Gibson as William Wallace. The film, a cultural and political phenomenon, turned the Scottish Wars of Independence commander into a hero.

In reality, it was largely Hollywood fantasy. So who was the real William Wallace? Was he a well-educated and patriotic freedom fighter as many claim, or merely a blood-thirsty monster.

The True Story reveals the real story which inspired the 1995 blockbuster – Braveheart.

9:30pm – Friday, January 11 on ABC2

Meet the beauties battling to be crowned the world’s most stunning transsexual. In Pattaya, Thailand, 23 women are vying to be crowned Miss International Queen, the transgender equivalent of Miss World.

Entering the pageant for the first time is 27-year-old trans-gender female, Sahhara. She lives in London, but was born a boy, in Nigeria, to strict Christian parents. Sahhara knew she could never be accepted in her home country. So she fled, arriving all alone in London at the age of 19.

She has entered Thailand’s Miss International Queen as Miss Nigeria to make a statement that as a transgender woman you can follow your dreams. In Nigeria, homosexuality is illegal and in some states, men who dress as women even face execution by stoning. Mokha Montrese is representing the USA. In her quest to turn from a man into a woman, Mokha has spent over �60,000 on surgery. This includes jaw shaving, chin, eye and nose jobs, lip filling, multiple breast implants, buttock augmentation, and four rib removals.

Thirty-year-old Yuni Carey is representing Cuba, but now lives in California. Yuni always knew she had been born into the wrong body. As a young woman she headed to Los Angeles, seeking the liberal freedom denied her in Cuba. If she wins the $US10,000 prize, she’s having a sex change before she returns home. The pageant will be watched on live TV by millions across South East Asia. 23 transsexuals.

5 days. But there can be only one winner.

9:55pm – Thursday, January 10 on ABC2

While having his nasal hair read, Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb) sees Eric Dunt (Peter Serafinowicz – Shaun of the Dead) selling cupboards on the tessellator, and believes it is a message from the Great He himself (Jinsy Praise Him!). He tells the residents to head down to Doker’s Quarry to hear Mr Dunt.

He and a sceptical Sporall (Chris Bran) make the trek, and it doesn’t take long for Maven to be swept up in the euphoria.

It’s down to Sporall to get to the bottom of the mystery of whether this charismatic cupboard salesman really is the Great He (Jinsy Praise Him!), or just an impostor.

9:00pm – Thursday, January 10 on ABC2

Hannah Gadsby doesn’t smile much and she laughs even less. For a comedian, that’s like being a transformer that doesn’t fancy driving. She hates talking and is not much chop when it comes to listening. She is a rock, an island, and a lone ranger.

She knows all this yet she was still utterly miffed when a friend told her she was woeful at chatting and was borderline rude. In the face of criticism she vowed to change and decided to train in the art of small talk. Hannah Gadsby: Mrs Chuckles is a tale of self discovery and of general failure.

8:30pm – Thursday, January 10 on ABC2

Laura (Scarlett Alice Johnson – EastEnders, Adulthood) arrives at a cafe to meet Jamie (Sean Michael Verey – Skins, Casualty, The Bill) for the first time since the party. She instinctively walks towards an attractive man sitting by himself, but quickly goes into shock when Jamie pipes up that she’s got the wrong table.

She is horrified to discover that Jamie is only 16 years old and refuses to speak to him. Rightly, Jamie feels Laura is not taking him seriously. He decides the only way to get her attention is to propose.

Meanwhile, Janet (Anna Chancellor) and Alan (Angus Deayton) are in counselling trying to repair their marriage but their guidance counsellor doesn’t really seem up to the job. Beth (Yasmin Paige – Ballet Shoes) gets advice from Jamie’s mum on the art of war and marriage.

9:30pm – Wednesday, January 9 on ABC2

Ten years ago Russell Brand was addicted to heroin, his career was unravelling and he was told he may only have six months to live. The story of how he battled to stay clean of drugs is at the heart of this eye opening and searingly honest, personal film in which Brand challenges how society deals with addicts and addiction.

It comes in the wake of the tragic death of his friend Amy Winehouse, which was the spur to this exploration of the ‘condition of addiction’ which, he believes, is misunderstood and wrongly treated. Brand meets a whole range of people from whom he draws insights – scientists at the cutting edge of research into the psychology of addiction, those involved in innovative recovery treatments, and drug addicts themselves.

Is addiction a disease? Should it be criminalised? And is abstinence-based recovery, which worked for Brand, a possible way forward? In this documentary in his own inimitable style Brand challenges conventional theory and practice as well as government policy, confronting the reality of addiction head on. Along the way he draws on his own experience to try to help one of the addicts he meets to take the first steps towards recovery. Brand has the opportunity to change the hearts and minds of policy makers when he is invited to give evidence before the Home Affairs Select Committee investigating the efficiency of current drug addiction treatment in the UK.

9:30pm – Tuesday, January 8 on ABC2

The award-winning Misfits have rebooted and re-suited for another chaotic, action packed series that includes a killer white rabbit and even the odd zombie. New guys Finn and Jess join old favourites Rudy, Curtis and Seth for a cheekier, more power-crazed Series 4. It’s time to power up. But do the new Misfits have any new A-list powers.

Well, kind of. Jess has X-ray vision and Finn has telekinesis – although he finds it a challenge to move even a cup of tea. And keeping our gang on the straight and narrow, or at least trying to, is new probation worker Greg with a set of warped moral guidelines and an incredibly short fuse.

While adapting to life on community service, Finn tries to save his relationship with his girlfriend Sadie – a relationship that has taken a dark superpower twist. Jess falls for mysterious, sexy barman Alex who seems to be harbouring a deep and unusual secret. It’s also time to say a final goodbye to an old gang member. With all hell quite literally breaking loose with the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Misfits is certainly back with a bang.

Cast includes: Joseph Gilgun (Rudy), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis), Matthew McNulty (Seth), Karla Crome (Jess), Nathan McMullen (Finn), Matt Stokoe (Alex), Shaun Dooley (Greg) and Natasha O’Keeffe (Abby).

8:40pm – Wednesday, January 9 on ABC2

It is estimated that obesity and obesity related illnesses could cost the British National Health Service �45 billion (approx 70 AUD billion) a year by 2050 unless the trend is arrested.

Obesity in the UK is an epidemic spiralling out of control. The UK is the fattest country in Europe and with over a third of the nation categorised as clinically obese, bulging Britain is now the third fattest nation on earth.

Bariatric surgery offers a radical cost-saving and life-changing solution to this problem. In an exclusive documentary series our cameras follow the lives of 12 obesity sufferers from fat to thin as they undergo radical bariatric surgery.

In episode one, we meet Matthew aged 36 weighing in at a mighty 228kg. Matt’s life began losing control when he was made redundant five years ago. Fitted with a gastric balloon to lose weight prior to surgery, Matt knows bariatric surgery is the only way to save himself from an inevitable obesity-related death.

Featured also is Shanel aged 26 and weighing 165kg. Shanel is more than double the weight she should be for her height. Doctors have told Shanel if she continues to live as she is, she will almost certainly face a premature death. For most of her life Shanel has suffered from cruel, bullying remarks about her weight.

But with her surgery now just weeks away she can’t help but get excited about what her life will be like after the operation.

8:40pm – Tuesday, January 8 on ABC2

This nail-biting series sees eight personalities surviving in some of the planet’s most perilous and remote locations. Each is left completely alone, with only a handheld camera to film their struggle. They must find water, food and shelter, and battle against the elements and the local wildlife. Forced to confront their innermost fears, will they survive being Alone in the Wild.

This week, dancer, choreographer and Dancing on Ice judge, Jason Gardiner, steps way out of his metropolitan comfort zone for six days and nights on a desert island. The sights and smells of the tropics propel him back to his childhood in Australia, and the bullying that built up the resilience that ultimately helped him to the peaks of his profession. At first, faced with the chaos of a raw, untouched wilderness, his obsessive compulsive disorders threaten to engulf him, as do a series of tropical storms that grind him down. But inspired by a rainbow, his fortunes change abruptly – by the end he is vowing to swap his ordered home life for more wilderness adventures.