IT wasn't that long ago we sensible Brits gawped in horror at the thought of plastic surgery, something we thought only wacky Californians who have lost all sense of reality did. So what has happened?

Botoxed foreheads, facial peels, eye bag removals, jowl lifts - they're everywhere. From TV presenter Anne Robinson, who has had the lot, to model Jordan who has had her boobs and legs done, Brits aren't just having plastic surgery, they're cheerfully admitting to it.

And, as the new Channel 4 TV show 10 Years Younger recognises, face lifts are not just for celebrities. The number of operations has increased by 50 per cent in the last year alone. Everyone, according to this tortuous series, should have one.

It makes for both compulsive and horrendous viewing, a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion, as a tired and weary member of the public has bits of their face hacked and sliced off with the promise it will make them look more youthful.

But before the slashing begins, the vulnerable and insecure victim must be ritually humiliated as the android-like host, Nicky Hambleton-Jones, plonks them, looking as rough and dishevelled as possible, in the middle of the high street and asks passers by to comment on their age and looks.

And much of the general public appears to think women over 35 shouldn't be allowed out in daylight.

After being exposed to much ridicule about looking like somebody's granny, having lots of wrinkles, huge bags under their eyes, manky hair or frumpy clothes, the poor victims are usually ready to submit to anything.

Of course, most of them haven't got anything wrong that a fresh hair style, a few new outfits and a bit of clever make-up couldn't sort out.

But Nicky and her team of condescending "experts" are always adamant surgery is essential. One poor 32-year-old mother of three was brutally told nature "hadn't been kind" to her. She looked perfectly fine to me.

She was even criticised for having an "old nose". How her nose managed to end up older than the rest of her face wasn't explained. But before she knew it, the hapless girl was flat out on the operating table, her ageing nose being repeatedly broken and reset.

And when she came round, swollen and bruised, sadistic Nicky declared unforgivingly: "Jayne's got a face to scare small children".

The programme's latest victim, last night, was minor celebrity Sherrie Hewson, who used to be in Coronation Street. At the end of her treatment, nasty Nicky smugly announced that a public poll judged the 54-year-old actress now looks an amazing 42. And all thanks to the surgeon's knife.

Of course, we all know that goodness is infinitely more important than beauty. But the pressure on women to look younger is increasing all the time. Cosmetic companies are now marketing anti-wrinkle creams for teenagers.

Even an intelligent, highly qualified woman like Cherie Blair was shown this week to be as touchy and insecure as the rest of us, apparently desperately pleading with a newspaper editor: "I have always been known for having good skin for my age. I mean - it's good isn't it?" after his paper accused her of having "sagging" skin.

10 Years Younger blatantly taps into our pathological fear of ageing. How many women of a certain age, with low self-esteem, will be stampeding to plastic surgeons, in a blind panic, after watching it? Perhaps we should save ourselves, and the monstrous Nicky Hambleton-Jones, the trouble and just put paper bags over our heads every time we appear in public.