It'd be a grime not to watch this (Life of Grime (1999))

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	Life of Grime (1999)
Date:	12/11/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

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Life of Grime follows a team of people working for the Department of Environmental Health in London. The people followed are the health inspectors, bin men, rat catchers, and the workmen who do the every day jobs, such as unblocking bunged up drains, and clearing homes ready for new tenants.

As well as meeting the various people that perform these often thankless tasks, we meet the people they interact with - the compulsive hoarders, the mentally ill, and elderly people simply unable to look after themselves in a safe and hygeinic way , as well as the social workers and police officers who try to help them .

The show is very interesting and varied - and occasionally very funny . One of the characters I loved was Edmund Trebus, a Polish immigrant who lived alone in a small area of his ground floor - with the rest of his home being filled with clutter he had accumulated over the years. He bacame a bit of a regular on the show, because people were always complaining about the mess and clutter in and around his home, meaning the council had to keep visiting .

I found him greatly amusing, especially when he was constantly telling people to 'Stick it up your chuffer!'. Eventually he was moved to a care home, but he still kept sneaking out to try and reclaim some of his horde .

While he provided some level of amusement, not because of his situation but because of his attitude, other parts of the show were very sad . One episode centred on council workers clearing out the house of a deceased lady, who had died alone at home and not been discovered for two weeks . I actually found myself crying that someone could die alone and not be missed for so long - even more so when during their cleaning they found pictures of her when she was much younger, a beautiful, happy, smiling woman .

It's not a show to watch right before dinner either - one regular character is the food hygeine inspector, who goes around restaurants and shops looking at their storage and cleaning practices . It was really quite disgusting to see kitchen floors in restaurants littered with mouse droppings, or fridges filled with rotting food . In one freezer, they even found illegal bush meat, riddled with bugs . Yucky .

I also find it a little hard to watch the rat catchers, casually bopping rats on the head with their specialised tools - a big metal ladle. I know rats are vermin (well cared for pet rats are , of course,an exception) and that they carry diseases, but I didn't like to see them killed on TV.

Overall, I think this is a great show . It shows a side of the Environmental Health Team that we don't often get to see , and illustrates just how difficult, disgusting, and sometimes emotional the job can be . It also shows just how difficult and lonely life can be for people with mental health issues, or elderly people who struggle alone , and sometimes die alone too , a sad state of affairs in modern society .

Originally recorded by the BBC, it is now often repeated on Blighty (formerly UKTV people) and is definitely worth a watch .

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