This series shows how we can treat everyday ailments using remedies based on freely available plants and remedies. It's extremely accessible and shows exactly how to prepare home treatments, often at a fraction of the cost of commercial lotions and creams. (There's no grow-your-own recreational drugs involved! This is all strictly medicinal).
The are six episodes of 30 minutes each, with a different focus each time; trees, herbs, flowers, vegetables, roots and fruit. Each programme follows the same pattern of explaining how many medicines have always been developed from the natural world, and how we can extract the important active ingrediants from many plants to make our own remedies.
James Wong is a cheery and engaging presenter who also happens to be a qualified botanist. He makes the creams and lotions in his own kitchen, often with a member of the public to help him, so you're encouraged to dive in and have a go yourself.
None of the recepies is hard to follow although quite a few use some specialist ingrediants which you'll need to get from health food stores or a pharmacy. Some of the lotions take quite a long time to prepare, too, so you may need to make them several weeks in advance. And not all of them smell great!
Over the course of the series, James suggests remedies to help with insommnia, acne, smelly feet, sore throats, eczema, muscle aches and pains, lice, varicose veins -- even improving memory. Each programme shows actual sufferers trying a remedy. They don't always work, but the results are very impressive and should encourage anyone with a long-term problem to have a go (following the medical guidelines, of course).
There's also plenty of information which suggests plants that are useful to grow yourself, and the companion book further develops these themes.
Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty TreatsI thoroughly enjoyed the whole series, although when you watch several episodes at once the level of repetition does become quite irritating (it's one of those shows which tells you what's coming up half a dozen times, as if you can't remember what happens in half an hour!).
It certainly inspired me to be more open-minded about things like ginkgo tea and an artichoke/hawthorn bar which lowers cholesterol. Think I'll give the garlic vinegar footbath a miss, however!
Overall, excellent informative TV. Very enjoyable and enlightening. If only the programmes were longer, and in a little more depth...
8/10