IAN HYLAND
On last night’s telly
OInside The Factory, BBC2: ★ ★ ★ ver on BBC2 last night Gregg Wallace was poised at the rear end of cow, with a big question for the dairy farmer: “Am I likely to get a kick in the face?”
I didn’t have the time to conduct a nationwide poll at that point.
However had I done so, I’m fairly confident that the split between those hoping for a Yes answer and those hoping for a No would have been similar to Brexit.
Luckily for Gregg, he managed to avoid being caught by any stray hooves – although if the cows had heard and understood any of his “moo” puns he may have enjoyed a less favourable outcome.
He clearly has plenty of fans elsewhere though. This show is now into its seventh series and remains
one of BBC2’ s most consistent ratings winners.
It was amazing that a programme so formulaic had managed to notch up almost 50 episodes before having to resort to socks last week.
Sadly, this look at yoghurt production provided further evidence that the ideas are drying up.
It covered ground we’d already seen in the cheese and milk episodes, while the justification for historian Ruth
Goodman’s piece on cream teas was that the pulped blackcurrant flavouring used looked a bit like jam.
Still, at least that gave Ruth the opportunity to settle a couple of well- trodden arguments.
Is it pronounced scone or scon? And does the jam go on first or the clotted cream?
The upshot seemed to be that you can pronounce it either way and eat it how you prefer. I trust we can now declare those matters closed.
‘‘ Sadly, this look at yoghurt has provided further evidence that the ideas are drying up