Top 10 Most DISGUSTING TV Shows EVER

#10: “The Drop Dead Show” (1998)

Davina McCall’s had a long and massively successful career in the media, but we’re sure this bizarre programme from the 90s is something she’d rather forget. It was a one-off special on Channel 4 all about how Britons’ life expectancies weren’t as high as we’d like, bringing on members of the public and examining them to try and predict when they’d die. One part of this analysis? Getting them to pass a stool on stage and then having Davina go in and check they’d definitely done it. Gillian McKeith, eat your heart out. Better yet, you could play along at home, and find out when YOU were going to die. Did you watch this and join in? Let us know.

#9: “Nighty Night” (2004-05)

It’s widely known as a “sick com”, and that’s for good reason. Julia Davis stars as Jill in her first solo writing project, a hairdresser desperately waiting for her ill husband to die while trying to seduce one of her neighbours – much to the dismay of his disabled wife. But there are some truly repulsive moments in “Nighty Night”, like Jill tricking Cathy into picking up a bag of dog turds she’s left in the cupboard under the sink. She also spends a lot of her time trying to manipulate Glen, played by a very disturbing Mark Gatiss, into killing people for her. More chillingly, a lot of the characters were based on real people met by Davis and the wider cast.

#8: “Heston’s Feasts” (2009-10)

Have you ever wondered what a leech tastes like? What if you gorge it on goose’s blood, flash-freeze it in liquid nitrogen, and then fry it in a pan? Well, luckily for you, Heston Blumenthal already worked that out in an episode of “Heston’s Feasts” where he tackled Gothic literature as a theme. While many of his dishes are equal parts appetising and stomach-churning, the leeches were so revolting that Heston eventually decided they couldn’t be served at his celebrity dinner, so he went back to the drawing board. It’s a shame, since it’s apparently a traditional Romanian dish. But in the end, he came up with another way to get his guests to drink some blood.

#7: “Hider in the House” (2007-08)

This bizarre and short-lived CBBC show is remembered for its unusual premise, with a family hiding a minor celebrity in their house for two days, hoping they don’t get caught by the parent who isn’t in on it. Kids had to play games to win prizes, but if they lost, their celebrity guest would have to do a forfeit: suck the sock. They’d be given a real sock and suck a smoothie out of it, something so disgusting we’re amazed that anybody did it. Dani Harmer even got a special edition just for her, “Suck Nan’s Tights”. New episodes aired on the weekends, but you wouldn’t want to be eating your breakfast while watching.

#6: “I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!” (2002-)

“I’m a Celeb” isn’t higher on our list because we’re all too desensitised to it now, and they’ve been reducing the revolting-ness of it lately by banning the ingestion of live animals – finally! But it still has plenty of gag-worthy moments, with one of the most putrid appearing in the All-Stars version in South Africa, where Joe Swash and Dean Gaffney had to drink an assortment of the world’s worst milkshakes. There’s something about DRINKING a cow’s vagina that’s somehow worse than just EATING it on a cocktail stick, and both of them retched all over the place. It’s enough to put you off milkshakes for life.

#5: “Embarrassing Bodies” (2007-)

While we don’t want to mock anybody for the medical conditions “Embarrassing Bodies” wanted to destigmatise, you certainly did need a strong stomach for some scenes in the show. There were the illnesses themselves, which were sometimes unimaginably unpleasant, but then there were the surgery scenes. These were graphic, uncensored clips of real people having major surgery, something squeamish viewers wouldn’t be able to bear. It’s still going on Channel 4 with a new generation of doctors tackling the nation’s most private health woes, and we’re still asking the same question all these years l ater: why not just go to your GP instead of coming on national television?

#4: “Brainiac: Science Abuse” (2003-08)

For every dynamite-filled caravan and random household object subjected to thermite, there were “Brainiac” lab experiments usually involving the twisted abuse of its in-house test subjects. Many of these experiments involved eating something unpleasant in an unpleasant way. We’re showing you a test where the lab rats were made to eat some stinky, garlicky pizza, as much as possible as quickly as possible. They were t hen given raw parsley, mints, and a glass full of baking soda to enjoy to try and get rid of the smell. If you don’t like close-ups of people eating, this is sure to put you off garlic for a long time.

#3: “How Clean is Your House?” (2003-09)

How on Earth do people live in houses like this? Your guess is as good as ours, but they do, up and down the country. Many of the people Kim and Aggie dealt with clearly had unaddressed mental health problems – like hoarding – but it still takes a very strong stomach to get through an entire episode. Shockingly, the homes are usually so filthy and riddled with dangerous bacteria that the inhabitants are actually ill, but can’t or won’t start the admittedly insurmountable work to tidy up. And most of the time, when Kim and Aggie return, they’ve reverted to their old ways, unable to add cleaning into their usual routine.

#2: “Dick & Dom in da Bungalow” (2002-06)

For every child who loved “Dick & Dom” in the early 2000s, there were others who thought it was too disgusting, even when they were young. With its endless toilet humour and barrages of creamy muck muck, it’s easy to get repulsed by the antics in the Bungalow, with the Bungalow Heads ending up covered in all manner of appalling fluids – though, they never seemed to mind. It was too much for some, however, with Rachel Stevens from S Club infamously walking off set during filming and refusing to take part in the grand finale, which, of course, would have involved her getting covered in muck muck.

#1: “The Word” (1990-95)

Ostensibly a music show, “The Word” eventually became known for its Hopefuls section, the “I wanna be on TV” desperados who would do anything for their five minutes of fame. For our money, the most revolting thing anybody ever did was eat a bowl of other people’s shaved-off corns and verrucas like they were cereal. The more infamous clip was the bloke who snogged an old woman, but that’s hardly as putrid as taking a bath in live worms or, worse, liquid animal manure. It was an anarchic, decade -defining show, and there’s never quite been anything like “The Word” on TV since. Just a lot of short-lived wannabes, which seems fitting.

Let us know what the maddest thing you’d do to be on TV is.