Exploring Northern bites
WHEN it comes to filming foodie travelogues, programme-makers aren’t being terribly adventurous right now.Where once upon a time they’d be jetting off to foreign climes at every opportunity (those TV people do love a clime), these days, for obvious reasons, it’s all about finding things to film on their own doorstep, albeit not literally (“ooh, look, a pint of milk…”).
But I can’t say I’m all that bothered that they’re sticking close to home.We’ve had so many overseas food shows by now, they’ve run out of new stuff to show us. Nadiya munching on grasshoppers pretty much ticked the final box in that respect. Besides, if it’s exotic ingredients you want to feast your eyes on, you’d struggle to beat aisle three in Lidl.
So instead we have shows such as THE HAIRY BIKERS GO NORTH, starting tonight on BBC2
(8pm), which celebrate homeproduced fare.And it looks to me as though the Hairies themselves, Si King and Dave Myers, are fine with that.
Over the course of eight episodes, they’ll be exploring the north of England from the west coast to the east (so if we want to be pedantic, which obviously I do, then it ought to be called The Hairy Bikers Go East.)
Based each week in a different fancy location, they’ll head out hither and thither (mostly thither) to meet local chefs, brewers, food producers and the like.
For week one they’re in Lancashire, where their stop-offs include The Parkers Arms gastro pub near Clitheroe (the mutton curry pie looks amazing) and a bar with a difference in Rawtenstall, 20-odd miles down the road.
By “difference”, what I mean is that this place, Mr Fitzpatrick’s, is a temperance bar, so it doesn’t serve alcohol. Dave takes a sip of the owner’s favourite, the raspberry, nettle and rosehip tonic, and declares it “really special”.
Elsewhere this evening, I’m beyond delighted to report that the wonderful Greg Davies and the wonderful Alex Horne are back with yet another series of the wonderful TASKMASTER (Channel wonderful 4, 9pm).
This is the programme where Alex sets a series of deliciously daft, low-budget challenges for five celebrity contestants (for this latest series it’s Alan Davies, Desiree Burch, Guz Khan, Morgana Robinson andVictoria Coren Mitchell), while co-host Greg sits in judgment of their efforts, dishing out the points only as he sees fit.
And if you found that explanation of Taskmaster’s format genuinely helpful, it must mean the 11 previous series, available on catch-up, await you as a whole new experience.
Words cannot describe how much I envy you.