The BBC has surprised me lately with its Supersizers Eat… series. As an adamant Channel 4 loyalist (with occasional guilty-pleasure channel surfs to the trash overloaded BBC3), I have been surprised to find a refreshingly historical and thoroughly entertaining shown on BBC2. Ok so granted, I only gave it a look with the hope of seeing gluttonous over-eaters attempt to shed pounds by eating vintage grub, but what I found was much better.
Supersizers eat… sees comedian Sue Perkins and food critic Giles Coren guffaw, gorge and generally disgrace their way through seminal historical decades, throwing etiquette to the wind and embracing the culture of the day with a relentless appetite. The show is insightive, accessible to history-duds such as myself, and boasts the added pleasure of showing the hosts shed any semblance of decorum they may have held up previously.
Supersizers eat… sees comedian Sue Perkins and food critic Giles Coren guffaw, gorge and generally disgrace their way through seminal historical decades, throwing etiquette to the wind and embracing the culture of the day with a relentless appetite. The show is insightive, accessible to history-duds such as myself, and boasts the added pleasure of showing the hosts shed any semblance of decorum they may have held up previously.
This week’s episode was a return to the fifties and no holds were barred as they threw themselves into the sugar-rush of a diet that was available after the austerity years of the Second World War. The menu boasted mixed delights from some rather suspect looking Wheatabix based appetisers to banana splits and Coca Cola, which were the choice diet of American influenced teenagers of the day. Major events are revisited including the Coronation, and Sue is seen heading an anti-Bomb demonstration in Trafalgar Square. Under the radar activities of the day are also relived behind closed doors, including a game of ‘whose lap am I on’ which makes for scintillating after dinner entertainment for some unsuspecting guests.
The two’s reviews of the era are mixed, as Sue is less than happy with her role as housewife, failing to revel in the thriftiness of grow-your-own and making her modest new homestead glimmer, but Giles embraces his role as man-of-the-house, car sales manager and general glutton for sugar. All in all though, the episode attests to the fact that we really had “never had it so good” as Harold MacMillan exclaimed at the time (whether he referred to the influence of the pure alcohol cocktails the two commit to necking is of course questionable however!).
Next week sees the two embrace the diet of the eighties, and I for one can’t wait to see them quaffing champagne in their New Romantic get-up.
Supersizers Eat… airs on Monday at 9pm on BBC2.
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