Food and Comedy

Alan Davies - Gutted

 Food and comedy obviously didn't make a great mix as BBC 2 have just canceled the Alan Davies comedy Whites. I wrote about this show some months back. More drama than comedy drama. I didn't believe the character Skoose -an agency commi-chef - could intimidate an all-powerful sous-chef like Bib (should have been).

Oliver Lansley, co-writer of the show blogged: 

Watching the reaction to Whites throughout the weeks has been fascinating and seeing how often it's been described in terms of 'drama' is particularly interesting. Matt and I always had very strong feelings about where we wanted to take this series but I don't think we have ever thought about the show in terms of it being a 'drama' as such. We've only ever thought in terms of the stories we wanted to tell. We knew we didn't want to make a 'normal' comedy show. We didn't want a laughter track, we didn't want to fill it with 'gags' and we felt very strongly that, particularly in episodes Five and Six, we wanted push the characters and do things that are probably quite unconventional for a half-hour comedy.

The unconventional was writing episodes, or long sections of episodes, that didn't have any comedy in them. He then wonders why some of us out here suggested it might be drama.

Perhaps it didn't engage us because there are so many examples of the real thing on TV.  I just checked on the BBC website to see how many chefs it lists - hundreds, really, hundreds and hundreds. They do an A-Z.  There were 67 in the A's. I gave up.

What's more there are 78 cookery programmes listed.

78! (Sorry, I already used up this years ration of exclamation marks). But really. Seventy bloody eight. Jeeze Louise.

Perhaps someone somewhere thought Whites was actually a cookery show - and we seem to have enough of those. Last in, first out. 

What exactly is going on with food shows on TV? I know they're not a new phenomenon and  I'll happily admit I've picked up the odd recipe idea from them but I don't slavishly scan for foody show or watch entire series. Not even Jamie or Gordon are big enough guns to get me hooked week after week.

But it would seem that food shows - and antiques (how many antiques shows does it take to make a daytime schedule? at the moment SEVEN!!!!!)  - are now the staple diet of BBC programming. A few years ago it was decorating and gardening. Why do we go through cycles of being swamped with more and more of the same.

Because we tell the broadcasters we like them. Yep, it's our fault. Maybe it hasn't happened to you but people get polled.

"Do you enjoy cookery programmes".
"Yes".
"Would you say you'd watch a good new cookery programme if we made one?"
"I'd give it a try"
"So, that's a yes?"
"I suppose. Yes"

And when the results come in all the people who are happy watching one or two cookery shows seem to be demanding more and more cookery shows. Which is why the BBC is making 78 of the buggers. And I know they're out there looking for new chefs!

Of course Whites didn't have the culinary charm of the Hairy Bikers, or the Drama of The Restaurant, or the tips of Nigela. It wasn't a cookery show after all, it was supposed to be a comedy. But there was more comedy in some of the factual entertainment shows - so an okay show about chefs that was really a very slow burning comedy drama got the chop.

In the meantime get ready for the next tranche of 'new' exciting cookery shows, coming to a plate near you very, very soon. And if somebody with a clipboard stops you on the street and asks you if you like cookery shows, do me a favour - throw an antique at them.