Ten Years Younger

Can somebody please tell me why is everyone hating on Nicky Hambleton-Jones aka NH-J? The presenter of Ten Years Younger has been on the receiving end of some brutal attacks in blogsphere since her programme, returned to our screens last week. Take this scathing article penned by Kathryn Flett in The Guardian where she describes NH-J as neither warm nor empathic and then our mates at TV Scoop had to get in on the action and called NH-J a gruesome fashion Nazi.

Ten Years Younger is kind of like an extreme version of Extreme Makeover where Nicky totally revamps a haggard looking female (occasionally male) with the aim of shedding ten years off their age. The transformation is totally amazing and you have to see it to believe it but then considering the amount of work that they have to endure how could they not look good? We are talking cosmetic surgery in the name of botox and chemical peels, basically whatever it takes to sap the wrinkles out. Then there is teeth whitening, new veneers or braces and this is all before they go anywhere near hair, clothes and make up. I really like this programme and find it very entertaining, I also love NH-J and I find her endearing. Her advice is honest and straight to the point and her results are fantastic and more importantly she leaves her charges looking and no doubt feeling like a million dollars.

Flett and co have criticised her tactics of humiliating her charges by parading them on the street and asking strangers their age. Ahem, excuse me but the perceived age of the charge is one of the elements of the programme and a crucial part at that. Of course it must be a dent in the ego to hear people say you look like you are 50 when you are only 33 but if you have gone so far down the road that you stop caring about your looks then I doubt that you will be too devastated about what complete strangers think. Anyway the flip side is that the charges get to flaunt their new look and make the public eat their words. Don't hate the playa, hate the game. 10 Years Younger is simply compelling and a much superior programme than the insipid How to Look Naked which is a blatant rip off.

Ten Years Younger airs on Thursday at 8.00pm on Channel 4

You can check out NH-J's cute website Tramp2Vamp here

Maga-holic

There was a time a few years back when I used to buy every magazine out there. Cosmopolitan, Company, Marie Claire, InStyle, New Woman - they all came home with me. Now I have toned it down a bit and only buy a couple of titles. There is Glamour which I took out a subscription to a few years ago and never got round to cancelling. Glamour is famous for being the publication that had the balls to be different from all the other mags out there. While its rivals were A4 sized, Glamour came in a A5 format that was designed to fit in your handbag. Clever eh? How could any respecting woman resist that? Unfortunately, Glamour has not maintained the standards of its earlier years and the articles are looking old and a bit samey so it will be goodbye to them soon. I also like Elle and Marie Claire - well what I mean is I like the look of them till an hour later when I have ploughed through and realised how crap and totally useless both magazines are.

I don't touch Cosmopolitan because the poor old thing reminds me of an out of date pub that is in desperate need of a lick of paint. In the 70s Cosmo was the voice of post modernist women and published articles on career and marriage while cajoling women that they could have it all. The publication was also a pioneer in awakening women's sexuality and held bold articles. In fact Cosmo was seen as the magazine that you bought if you wanted to know how to cook a three course meal and perform a blow job. Sadly Cosmo's circulation is no longer what it was in the 70s and 80s and is now just seen as just another magazine while other titles like Marie Claire, Glamour and now Grazia have surpassed it. Ah, Grazia; described by a media honcho as a woman's guilty pleasure. It is like bad men and alcohol, fantastic at first till you realise that it is simply not good for you. Upper class fancy magazines like Vogue, Tatler and Harpers do nothing for me. All fur coat and no knickers with very few articles of interest. The magazines that I do have time for are Psychologies, Easy Living and Happy. Also magazines that come free with the Sunday newspapers are pure class; Stella with The Sunday Telegraph, YOU with The Mail on Sunday, Style with The Sunday Times and Observer Woman are all gorgeous publications that remain in my collection. Yes, sometimes the best things are for free. What magazines do you guys read? Picture from The Observer website