Apron fools’ day is here
NEVER let it be said the BBC isn’t doing its best to slash costs. Take MASTERCHEF, which returns tonight (BBC1, 9pm) for series 16 (series 16 of the John Torode and Gregg Shoutyman era, that is).
Specifically, take its MasterChef aprons. Instead of extravagantly handing one of these coveted, highly eBay-able items to all 60 of its new competitors – as if MasterChef aprons grow on trees or something – John and Gregg will now expect each cook to prove they deserve one.
So, of the six newcomers who swan in to the kitchen at the start of each heat, MasterChef aprons will now be awarded only to the four who make the next round.
Over the series, according to my admittedly somewhat iffy arithmetic, that’s a total of 20 aprons the producers will no longer have to fork out for.
Assuming each apron costs, say, £20, that’s a saving of £400.That’s enough to buy more than two and a half people’s BBC licences for a whole year.
Or, if it’s BBC salaries we’re talking about, enough to buy nearly two whole minutes of Gary Lineker saying something to a TV camera.
Elsewhere, the beachside setting of FLESH AND BLOOD (ITV,
9pm, nightly until Thursday) might initially give this new thriller a somewhat overfamiliar feel.
“Hmm, let me guess,” I hear you sigh.
“Would I be right in thinking there are dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of a seemingly tightly knit seaside community?”
But actually no, you wouldn’t. Wouldn’t be right, I mean.
This time there are dark secrets lurking beneath the surface of a seemingly tightly knit seaside
family. So that’s entirely different. Sort of.
The story begins with a seemingly lifeless body (we’re not yet sure if it’s technically dead or not) being found on the beach, then flashes back to give us a bit of background.
A nosy neighbour (Imelda Staunton) is telling a pair of cops about the widow next door (Francesca Annis) and her recent troubles.
It looks as if everything turned pear-shaped for Annis’s character after she announced to her grown-up kids that she’d met a new man (Stephen Rea), only months after the death of their dad.
But, as we’ll find out, plenty had been wrong beforehand.
And none of her offspring (Russell Tovey, Claudie Blakley and Lydia Leonard) is in any position to make moral judgments.
Finally, in the first of a new series of FOOD UNWRAPPED (C4,
8.30pm) Jimmy Doherty heads to Paris to find out why baguettes go stale so quickly, even though there’s now this thing called the internet that could tell him in roughly 30 seconds.