Whether against modern life's rules and regulations or political correctness, these personal views from celebrity faces push the arguments to the edge and voice the backlash they see emerging.
SATURDAY, 3 DECEMBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 18:40 GMT
Paranoid Parents
If in doubt... blame the parents. The nation's mums and dads have been sent to the naughty corner by experts and politicians, all claiming they know best when it comes to raising our kids, says John O'Farrell.
They promise solutions for our problems - from controlled crying and baby yoga, to parenting lessons, tracking devices and truancy fines.
Parenting has become the new DIY - too much work, too little fun, endless expense and constant scope for improvement.
But the more information we have the more paranoid we are becoming about whether we are up to the job.
Whatever happened to the idea that children are a joy and raising them is a natural instinct?
John presents a very personal Backlash in which he argues that the physics of parenting has changed, for the worse. In the past, children used to orbit around their parents - now, it is the other way around.
Parents, says John, are losing their dignity as they get increasingly wrapped up in their children's lives. Meanwhile, children are being denied the chance to learn initiative and independence.
It is time for Britain's parents to have a temper tantrum of their own, John believes. He says: junk the instruction manuals, stand up to the nanny state, and forfeit the fear as you go forth and multiply.
Presenter: John O'Farrell
Producer and director: Paul Jenkins
Executive producer: Paul Woolwich
SATURDAY, 26 NOVEMBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 18:15 GMT
"We are here to have children. By doing so we perpetuate the human race, guarantee support in old age, and find personal fulfilment" - that is the conventional wisdom.
But the controversial author of Childfree and Loving It, Nicki Defago, begs to differ.
In an over populated world, it is more responsible not to have children, Nicki believes.
A life worrying about what the kids are up to is hardly fulfilling, she says, and in fact childfree people pay too much tax subsidising the ill-bred, badly behaved brats who run wild in public places and show their ingratitude by not giving up their seats on trains and buses.
Supporting Nicki in her bid to educate the world is a motley crew of other contented non-parents, including writer Julie Bindel, comedienne Natalie Haynes, Loose Women presenter Carol McGiffin, and business woman Manda Rigby.
On her quest for like-minded souls, Nicki visits a hotel and restaurant that "takes dogs but not children", goes to adult-only campsites, and visits a small business owner in Leicester who refuses to employ women of child-bearing age.
But it is not all plain sailing for Nicki. She's confronted by mother-of-six Lynette Burrows, who tells her: "Unless you are prepared to have children there is no future for the country".
Not so, says futurologist Martin Raymond. As far as he is concerned, trouble lies in not hearing the voice of people like Nicki. "If people don't listen, we will have a revolution." He argues that as the proportion of society choosing not to have children grows to more than a quarter in the next 15 years, their voice will have to be heard.
But they want to be heard now, they've had enough, and they let it all pour out in Backlash.
Presenter: Nicki Defago
Producer and director: Glynn Jones
Executive producer: Paul Woolwich
SATURDAY, 19 NOVEMBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 19:05 GMT
Selling Sickness
Comedienne and former psychiatric nurse Jo Brand is fed up with the medicalisation of society.
She feels that you cannot have a stiff knee without thinking you have crumbling bones, eat a sausage roll without worrying about having a heart attack, or be grumpy for the day without being diagnosed as clinically depressed.
Jo sets out to find out why this might be happening and why, as a result, the nation is taking more prescription drugs than ever before.
Jo meets doctors, academics and patients who are all fighting back against our pill-centred society.
She concludes that the only area that really benefits is the pharmaceutical industry and thinks that we should all get on and enjoy our good health, rather than constantly worrying about our bad health.
Presenter: Jo Brand
Producer and director: Lucy Swingler
Executive producers: Mark Fielder (for Quickfire Media)
Lucy Hetherington (for the BBC)
A Quickfire Media production for the BBC
SATURDAY, 12 NOVEMBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 18:50 GMT
The Food Police
Comedy writer and actress Arabella Weir spent her childhood being told what she could and could not eat by her parents.
Now grown up, she feels the nagging and the guilt comes from just about everybody else: from doctors, advertisers, the food industry and - leading the charge of course - the government.
The so called obesity "epidemic" has given credence to those determined to police our eating habits. But the "Food Police", says Arabella, have gone too far.
In the firing line are a clinically obese Deputy Prime Minister who does not follow his own government's nutritional guidelines, a County Council in East Sussex which used the Mental Health Act to incarcerate a man with an eating disorder, and a Hospital in Barnsley that has infringed civil liberties by banning chocolate from their canteen.
Arabella says that measures such as these are only going to reinforce and prolong our already-tortured relationship with food.
"I'm right behind efforts to improve the nation's diet but when it comes down to the day-to-day business of choosing my supper, I'll be the one deciding if it's broccoli or burgers", she says.
Presenter: Arabella Weir
Producer and director: Steve Grandison
Executive producer: Paul Woolwich
SATURDAY, 5 NOVEMBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 18:45 GMT
Sex and the Nanny State
Mariella Frostrup argues that political correctness is driving the fight for gender equality in the wrong direction.
The impact of the Sex Discrimination Act, now 30 years old, is often mired up in the trivial, she says. Companies can end up in court for not protecting their employees from saucy spam e-mails, office Christmas parties are dying for fear of sexual harassment claims and city firms have paid out to women for the slightest sexual slight.
But Mariella believes there is hypocrisy at play in our culture, where sexuality is acceptable everywhere but the workplace.
The number of cases brought under the Sex Discrimination Act has quadrupled in the last decade.
In our increasingly litigious society, she says, the scope of the Act is constantly being pushed. Mariella discovers this piece of legislation - meant to revolutionise women's rights - has now been appropriated by men.
She finds the biggest case was brought by 8,000 men who lodged tribunal claims about being forced to wear ties to the office by the Department of Work and Pensions. And she meets the 6' 10" air traffic controller who tried to win a sexual discrimination case for not getting a job because of his height.
The government actually changed the Sex Discrimination Act so that women only shortlists were legal in the last election. While applauding the aim of Labour's positive discrimination, Mariella questions the method and visits the constituency that backlashed against this policy and voted in an independent.
While women still receive on average only half the male income over their lifetimes, Mariella asks: has the battle for gender equality lost the plot?
Presenter: Mariella Fostrup
Producer: Jane Fellner
Executive producer: Paul Woolwich
SATURDAY, 29 OCTOBER, 2005, BBC TWO, 18:15 BST
May Contain Nuts
Clowns who can't throw custard pies; children who can't play conkers; swimmers banned from an early morning dip. The reason? The fear of being sued.
Arthur Smith ignites the backlash against our "compensation culture" and has a go at a phenomenon which now costs an estimated £10 billion a year.
He sets out to rescue our love of fun and adventure from the kill-joys of bureaucracy and the law, to stop our way of life being eroded by a mass of petty rules.
"Compensation culture" is often blamed on ambulance-chasing claims brokers. So Arthur takes a day trip to Blackpool for a bit of ambulance chasing with a difference.
He also visits the safest school in Britain, which hit the headlines when the headmaster made his pupils wear goggles to play conkers.
Arthur gets inspiration for his backlash from an early morning dip in London's Hampstead ponds. Swimmers there recently won a small but significant victory in the courts. They challenged bureaucrats who banned adults swimming in the early morning without lifeguard supervision, saying it was too risky.
And did you know - if you use soft mats to protect children from falling from climbing bars during PE it could encourage them to believe that there will always be a soft landing when they climb. The result? Soft mats are banned.
Has the nation that produced great adventurers like Shackleton, Hilary and John Noakes become a nation of cowering wimps, asks Arthur?
Presenter: Arthur Smith
Producer and director: Eamon Hardy
Executive producer: Paul Woolwich
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