INCREDIBLE MEDICINE: DR WESTON’S CASEBOOK, BBC2, 9pm
PEOPLE who are different have a lot to teach us, and this new series travels the globe to meet those with extraordinary medical conditions in the hope that their struggles, and their body’s ability to adapt, might provide the “cures of the future”.
The series will meet a bearded lady and a man who can’t feel fear but starts with something more grim: a girl whose heart is on the outside.
Virsaviya, seven, loves dance and running about but must be extremely careful, even when dressing: “I put on soft clothes so as not to hurt my heart.”
The heart is outside her ribcage, and appears as a pulsating lump on her chest. I’ll be blunt: it looks horrible. Only five people in every million have this extraordinary condition, and I’m sure only five in a million have young Virsaviya’s bravery.
ROOTS, BBC4, 9pm
THERE is horrific violence in tonight’s episode but it’s meted out to white people for a change.
The story of the enslaved Kunta Kinte and his descendants has reached George, son of Kizzy, and Kunta’s grandson. Born as a result of the plantation owner Tom’s constant raping of Kizzy, George has a more favoured place on the farm than most slaves.
Tom starts teaching George about cock-fighting and the young boy has a clear talent for it. He grows up, and his reputation grows too, and he begins to wonder if it might offer him a route to freedom one day.
But the segment of the programme which is most horrific and bloody is between two white men. Tom becomes involved in a duel, done with pistols and swords, and it is incredibly slow, brutal and gory. It seems no-one is safe from violence in this horrible world, whether it’s the birds, the slaves or the privileged white men. The show prompts us to ask what progress we’ve made.
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