Eco-family leave a huge carbon footprint

Tree-huggers Phil and Helen Reddy tried to go green by building their house in a hole in the ground on earth-friendly principles.

It was a commitment to the planet, blah de blah, etc etc. Light provided by the sun, heat by fancy electricity-generating tiles, hot air by Phil and Helen.

Their intentions were all very admirable, I'm sure, but the project involved the use of tons and tons of concrete to reinforce their little house in the hillside of a wind-swept corner of Cumbria.

And the manufacture of concrete is an environmentally-unfriendly thing to do. Mother Earth would not be happy.

Still, you had to have a little respect for Phil and Helen in Channel Four''s Grand Designs Revisited.

They admitted there was a compromise to be made: principles v practicality.

Practicality won the day because you can't build a underground house without vast amount of concrete to keep the worms out.

But they hoped the savings made in minimal use of power - light is provided by so-called sun pipes - would offset the initial carbon footprint.

So, perhaps, principles may win in the end.

Credit where it due, then, but there was a bit of new age claptrap on show.

Like when Phil, discussing the project, rabbited on about a sense of belonging to the local landscape.

He even said the dark rooms in part of the house added to the drama. Yeah, sure. It's pitch black, you've just stood on the dog, but you've done your bit for the earth.

The programnme, updating a previous documentary, revealed how the couple and their two sons are getting on.

+ There are two points I would like to make about Wednesday's Five News report on the vist of the French president and his wife.

And both of them have to do with Carla's boobs.

1. They showed that old picture of the former model showing a pair of attributes which has got Mr Sarkozy abreast of current affairs.
2. They covered up said attributes with a black bar.

Not that it was necessary. Her cup doesn't exactly runneth over,