Run for Glory on BBC spent months following a selection of people as they prepared to take part in the London Marathon. Under the tutelage of Sally Gunnell and Steve Cram, they spent the previous six months shedding pounds and gasping for breath as they prepared. There was a heavy smoker whose father's death had motivated her to improve her health;

A young man who had started drinking 60 pints a week after the sudden death of his fiancee and had ballooned to 25 stone;

A father who was running to raise awareness of suicide after his son took his own life; A Brighton drag queen who wanted to prove that he could do something more than work in a call centre; A young woman who had suffered from breast cancer; A 26-year-old man who has been battling full blown Aids for nine years. . .

The list went on, a sample of the thousands of yarns that wove their way around London last Sunday morning.

"Our journey's been amazing, " said Julie, a single mother who has been told that there's a 50 per cent chance of her cancer returning. It was hard to disagree. But as the cameras recorded every sob and stumble along the way, it was questionable whether a window into these people's grief was helping or harming.

"You are a changed person, aren't you?" said Gunnell to one contestant with particularly low self-esteem, coming dangerously close to browbeating.

The doctor, an unnervingly shrill woman, told a contestant that her fitness was "comparable to someone in a coma, you have to think of yourself like that, " before the cameras captured every tear as she broke down during a half-marathon. It was tough love from every possible angle.

They all completed the course in varying times, including two original contestants who had dropped out of the televised training, a decision which didn't seem to have done them any harm. Whether you think this sort of show is an example of manipulation or inspiration depends on your point of view. When the aforementioned John returned to the scene of his accident, consoling himself with the thought that he now had a lot more time to spend with his kids than when he was just another suit working in the city, it was genuinely moving, but still uncomfortably voyeuristic.

As Coldplay's 'Fix You' played over shots of strained faces and broken bodies crossing the finishing line, this column couldn't help but get the sickly feeling that people's grief had been exploited. Nobody got fixed.

More people looking for a sense of achievement through sport, but without all that running about, were featured on another edition of Sure Fans United on ITV1 the other night. Instead of grief, this show managed to pull off the less offensive stroke of exploiting people's idiocy.

Barry and Elaine both support Spurs, and how. Apart from the obligatory White Hart Lane wedding, they have a daughter named after Terry Venables and a framed picture of Edgar Davids hung up in the living room. Not them meeting Davids, you understand, just a picture of Edgar standing about in his Spurs kit during a match looking slightly bored.

Barry has become a house husband, allowing Elaine to pursue her career as a manicurist, one who refused to paint anyone's nails red, lest she be tainted by the satanic hue of the Arsenal. After daughter Terri (let's hope that's how they spell it) won a competition to meet some of the Spurs players, dad Barry, rather charmingly, insisted that Elaine accompany her, in case any of his heroes "say something I don't agree with".

Soon all the family were at a Spurs game, at which Barry lets loose a string of expletives in front of the kids, but "they know it's passion". Let those of us who attend GAA matches refrain from throwing stones. Still, our game is a lot safer than being among those louts at Premiership games, eh Barry? "Nah, there's no trouble at football games any more, " he said, scratching his tattoo with a wistful look in his eyes.

The sole glimmer of wisdom in the half hour appeared in the words of Elaine, as she pondered her family's worship of a football club: "It's worse than a religion in many aspects."