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TV PREVIEWS
Can I Get High Legally?, Thursday 9pm, BBC Three 
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To paraphrase Barack Obama, yes you can. Although after watching this documentary, you probably won't want to.
Can I Get High Legally? sees BBC 6 Music DJ and Big Brother's Little Brother presenter George Lamb, a man undoubtedly as good looking as he is unpopular among male music fans, venture into the surprisingly seedy world of legal drugs to find out whether buying a packet tacky pills will give you anything more than a feeling of woozy disappointment.
To kick off, George admits that having been a card-carrying member of the music industry for a while now, it's only natural that he's tried ecstasy and cocaine (or "fruit and flowers" as the infamous record company expenses euphemism goes), but only when he was young and foolish, he'd never do anything like that these days, oh no. With a determined and slightly confused look on his face, he heads off to Camden (of course), to try and get some interviews with the hippies who sell products like "Spice" and "Liquid Gold".
None of sellers want to talk to him, though, so he finds three pale weirdos who like to party legally and who are just about to head off on an all-night bender. "I was surprised by their lack of concern," says George, looking serious. He's obviously a bit worried about them, but also wants a revealing insight into what kind of effects these drugs can have on their subjects, so he gives the trio a video camera to film their night out. That's science, kids!
OK, it's easy to tease – whether it's the contrast between Lamby's distracted, sleepy presenting style and the look of demented concentration on his face when performing menial tasks like pouring himself a glass of water, or his meaningless street surveys, which he describes in droopy yoof argot as "canvassing randoms". But after the initial hiccups, he actually does a half decent job, managing to highlight the mind-bending fact that some of these pills are potentially more dangerous than their illegal counterparts.
However, you do wonder whether perhaps this should've been broadcast before Glastonbury…
by Will Parkhouse, Wednesday 1 July 2009
Picture: BBC
