Give me the burpers

Balloon Boy" hoax dad Richard Heene - who, as a publicity stunt, pretended his son was floating across Colorado in a runaway balloon - was roundly condemned for exploiting his family. But that hasn't stopped Prime from digging out an old episode of trashy reality show Wife Swap, on which the eccentric father appears, exploiting them all over again.

Not that I am complaining. This is crazy-good television.

Heene and his wife, Mayumi, are wacky storm-chasers who let their kids sleep in their clothes so they can be ready to go after a storm - and into the storm. Their life is chaotic but fun - all farting and burping and letting off rockets.

"Kids should live a life of fun and adventure. It's not right to hold back a child's energy," the Heenes say. Their sole house rule consists of "Don't pee on the neighbour's garden".

The Heenes swap partners with a safety-obsessed couple from posh Connecticut, who make a living child-proofing homes and who won't let their children use the microwave (cancer) or eat sushi (tapeworms) or play outside without helmets.

The Martels do fire drills and try to maintain a "calm, quiet and safe" home environment. "I'm drained by all the rules - I feel very trapped," Mayumi says.

This could be Wife Swap's perfect juxtaposition of extremes. The volatile, emotionally labile Heenes meet the uptight anal Martels. Cue: exquisitely amusing conflict.

On one hand Mayumi, who comes across as the most likeable of the quartet, tries to loosen up the risk-averse Martels. "You have been living a life of fear, it's time to live a life of fun," she says, as she sends the Martels' kids off to play in the woods and bike down a gentle hill.

Back in Colorado, toffee-nosed Karin Martel tries to bring some order and manners to the Heene household, with less success.

Her attempts to civilise Richard Heene are heroic but doomed. "No more burping, no more farting," she decrees.

The best moments are when Richard Heene has a tanty-level meltdown, proving he is just a big kid himself.

This documentary was made months before the Colorado Balloon Boy incident, as it is now known, but even snotty tart Karin might have predicted the hair-trigger temper of Richard Heene would get him into trouble. "Richard is a psycho," she has since said. Wife Swap is made for pure entertainment, but there is a thoughtful side in the manner of Tolstoy's quote that all happy families are happy in the same way, but unhappy ones are different.

The message is that all families think their way of doing things is normal and everyone else are freaks - even if the daily routine is trying to burp and fart at the same time at the dinner table or to put your kids into a cage to keep them safe.

Needless to say, Richard Heene may be facing criminal charges, but I know which family I would rather be part of. Burrrp.

* Wife Swap is on Prime this Thursday at 8.30pm.