Operation Transformation (RTÉ One, Thursday, 9.30pm), has had a facelift. Its “weighing scales” logo has been ditched following criticism last year by eating disorder organisation Bodywhys of the show’s “considerable emphasis on dieting, body weight and shape”. Also gone is the humiliating weigh-in segment, in which participants were expected to shiver on scales in unflattering athleisure wear.
The five contestants instead receive a relatively sensitive debriefing from the assembled experts regarding issues such as their high cholesterol. Weight is mentioned but only in passing. Nobody is barked at for carrying a few extra kilos. But when you remove the tough love from Operation Transformation, what’s left?
The series is back after a challenging several years. As if the Bodywhys controversy wasn’t enough there was the 2020 debacle of “Operation Covid Nation”. This was a plan to reboot the programme for the pandemic and to “capture” how Ireland was “coping behind closed doors since Covid-19 arrived”. It was also the worst ever case in Irish broadcasting of not reading the room – and the plans were shelved.
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This season, Operation Transformation returns to its core strengths of showcasing members of the public with moving personal stories. The most affecting is that of Andrea Daly, from Arklow, Co Wicklow, who lost her 13-year-old son Dylan to Cerebral Palsy. “I thought I was going to be this mammy with this little boy, and him running around,” she recalls. ‘The seizures were just out of control.”
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She wipes tears as she says this. As does Thomas Hynes, from Longford, who recounts almost dying of a heart attack several years ago and who saw his business shutter in the pandemic. He’s determined to bounce back and, having launched a successful pizza food truck, has now signed up for RTÉ's annual fitness frenzy.
They and the other “leaders” are the best sort of reality TV contestants. They’re here because they want to be in better shape rather than because they are seeking fame. Indeed, school principal Lorraine Dempsey confesses the exposure initially put her off.
Kathryn Thomas, the host, is enthusiastic, as are expert advisers, who include Dr Sumi Dunne, Karl Henry and Sophie Pratt. Yet while the series’s goals are laudable – and it’s gratifying the drill sergeant routine has gone – as television, it’s hit and miss.
The finalists are selected from a group of 20 who are put through their paces at DCU. However, there’s no excitement over who is in and who is out. Nor are we told by what criteria they are chosen. Indeed, there’s a lack of tension throughout the episode. The assumption is that we are invested in the show and no effort is made to reel us in. It’s all rather flabby.
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Operation Transformation has become a fixture on the RTÉ schedule over the past decade and a half (hosted initially by the late Gerry Ryan). But all good athletes know when to call it quits. Without taking anything away from this year’s leaders and their moving personal testimonies, you wonder if we’re getting to the point where Operation Transformation’s race might be run.
