ITV1 to launch healthy campaign

Claire Sweeney's Big Fat Diet sees her pile on two stone.

ITV1 is to launch a campaign to help fight obesity and get the nation healthy after Christmas.

The Feelgood Factor aims to encourage people to shape up and get fit and will be supported by celebrities from the channel's most popular shows.

The shows will include a mix of live music, dance and comedy combined with advice and challenges from experts on how to lose weight.

The initiative ties in with the government's Change4Life campaign.

ITV1's campaign will launch with a big entertainment event at the end of January with a follow-up show at the end of March.

Sponsored weight loss

The shows, which will air in prime-time weekend slots over eight weeks, will also feature ways of getting friends and family involved by sponsoring weight loss.

People can pledge to give a friend pounds in cash for every pound in weight they promise to lose, to be donated to a charity of the slimmer's choosing.

"What we were trying to do is capture that moment when we all have that resolution after Christmas," an ITV spokesman said.

One of the shows in the season is Claire Sweeney's Big Fat Diet, in which the former Brookside actress and Celebrity Big Brother contestant piles on two stone in weight in an experiment to see what happens to people when they get too fat.

A daytime lifestyle show called The Biggest Loser, which has already been a hit in the US and Australia, has also been commissioned.

The weight loss programme will be set in a country house and see contestants voted out, X Factor-style, depending on their slimming efforts.

The new ITV1 winter line-up also features a vampire drama starring Ashes to Ashes actor Philip Glenister, a remake of classic series The Prisoner with Sir Ian McKellen and comedy show Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder.

Other new shows include Chris Tarrant quiz The Colour of Money, Law & Order: UK and the return of classic game show the Krypton Factor.