DUCHESS IN HULL, ITV1, Monday 9pm

MOST modern parents know how hard it is to stay happy, healthy and ensure they and their loved ones are eating properly, especially if they're in a lowly paid job or have a limited budget to work with.

Of course, there are a million and one experts on TV prepared to tell us how to manage our lives. Celebrity chefs show us how to prepare tasty dishes at bargain basement prices, financial advisors explain how to avoid crippling interest repayments, and let's not forget chat-show experts who tell us how to lead a more relaxed and enjoyable life.
But for many of us, it often takes someone to come and give us a real wake-up call and shake us up out of our established routines for any of this expert advice to really sink in.

Enter Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, a former member of the Royal Family who is now a highly successful businesswoman.

In this groundbreaking two-parter, she is plucked from her glamorous life in New York to stay in a B&B in Hull and help a family living on one of the poorest council estates in Britain to lead a healthier life.

The Duchess, who was married to the Duke of York for 10 years, and is mother to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, has branched out into commercial and media ventures during a period spent in the United States.

However, while a typical day for her involves a packed schedule of business meetings and charity commitments, which is a world away from the kind of life most of us lead, she's also faced – and triumphed over – difficulties we can all identify with.

Since going through a battle with eating disorders and her own body shape, the Duchess has long campaigned for awareness on the growing problem of childhood obesity, and for the past 11 years has been a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers International.

She's also fought low self-esteem, family conflict, financial crisis, divorce and bereavement, and now wants to step up and help another family deal with their problems.

She says: "This programme is an attempt to explore solutions to the growing obesity problem in the UK. I want to see whether we can help families all over the country, no matter what their budget, to improve their lifestyles through using what is already available to them in their community."

In this two-part special, the Duchess meets the Sargerson family, who live on the notorious Preston Road estate. She gets to know them all, gaining a first-hand look at how they make ends meet, and life on the estate in general.

Hull was voted the second worst place to live in Britain in a Location, Location, Location special last year, so it goes without saying that the way of life there will be vastly different to what Sarah is used to.

The Duchess plans to draw upon her own experiences to help the Sargersons improve their lifestyle for the long-term, revealing the difficulties and daily pressures low-income families face along the way.