If you have Digital TV, i.e. Sky / Cable or Freeview, you get 'true' widescreen, Hook, and the image looks much better. Unfortunately, if you are viewing analogue terrestrial TV, most broadcasts are in some sort of hybrid widescreen (14:9), so people do appear short and fat!
You might be able to adjust your TV to 14:9 mode, so that images are correctly proportioned, but you will then get black bars down each side of the screen.