Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Diets That Time Forgot'

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“The Diets That Time Forgot”

Forget “The Biggest Loser” and its weekly American gladiator regimen. When it comes to spectator dieting, leave it to the British to lend a quirky eccentricity to the process. They do weight loss the old-fashioned way in “The Diets That Time Forgot,” a six-episode English realty TV series coming out on DVD Tuesday.

The British show is hosted by fit historian Sir Roy Strong, who shepherds nine modern obese Brits through the weight-loss regimens of three old English diet plans. The TV show divides contestants into three teams, decks them out in period costume and puts them up in a magnificent Victorian country house to play out the drama. Over the course of the show, the teams spend 24 days dieting and taking part in fitness programs of the past, including ice-water baths, dancing, colonic irrigation, military drills and other draconian exercises.