Operation Transformation review: Adam Clayton dials in, but John is the real star here
Operation Transformation: John gets a call from a member of his favourite band.
It’s week seven on Operation Transformation and, as host Kathryn Thomas announces: “it’s a beautiful day for John.” After nearly two months following this group, it feels like the perfect way to start this season’s penultimate episode.
The fan favourite has had audiences howling over the last few weeks as he navigated food shopping, vegetable chopping and a memorable return to cycling, all while his wife Selena became a series leader in her own right. The lorry driver will be sorely missed after next week’s finale but for this week, we get to enjoy watching the entire Ryan family battle it out in a game of footgolf.
Soon after, John receives a surprising phone call.
“I’m going to start spending more time with the family and start doing more fun things,” he tells Adam Clayton. Yes, Adam Clayton of U2 who, apparently, is a big Operation Transformation fan and is equally worried about John’s cooking.
“I’d put that up there with delivering me second child on the side of the road,” John tells the experts after the call.
One of the things he told Clayton he is going to start doing is attending concerts, which Selena is sure to be delighted about. As she tells the camera, the past seven weeks have transformed her husband.
“I never in a million years thought I could be as happy as this again,” John says. “That’s down to my journey with Operation Transformation and it’s also down to the love and support that I'm getting from my family.”
John’s not the only one having a good week. All five of this year’s leaders retook a minimal fitness test to see how their abilities now compare to the beginning of January and for Kathleen, the improvements have been “incredible”, according to physiology expert Prof Niall Moyna.
A particularly touching moment of this episode occurred during the Cork woman’s visit with Dr Sumi Dunne. The show’s resident GP thanked Kathleen for opening up the conversation around menopause through her Operation Transformation journey.
“I think we have made so many steps with regard to women’s health in the latter years in opening up conversations,” says Dr Dunne. Kathleen says that she is delighted to have the opportunity to do so and is equally happy to hear that she lost four pounds this week.
Meanwhile, Stefano still isn’t meeting the requirements for his age but is told that kicking his tobacco habit will be “transformative” and Katie has decided to become the author of her own story. The now 25-year-old celebrated her birthday this week and says that she’s proud to have put herself out there by entering the show.
“It’s so important to encourage new mums,” she tells Thomas during a run. “It's okay to lose yourself but it’s okay to be selfish too.”
Poor Sarah, however, will be limping into the final week after pushing her hip flexor to the limit during a session with Karl Henry. It shouldn’t hold her back too much, as she’s down another three pounds this week - making her total loss over the seven weeks a whopping two stone.
As Prof Moyna said, it’s amazing what seven weeks can do.
