More like Come Gripe With Me

Date Published: 09-Aug-2011

GOD bless Delia Smith. Or maybe not. She hosted the cookery programme that most of us were first exposed to and it was fairly simple television and could hardly be described as being cutting edge.

Still, it had its legions of fans although I doubt anyone watching ever cooked a recipe that was shown on the programme.

Now we have ‘evolved’ to Come Dine With Me which, embarrassingly, came from Galway city last week and really proved why such programmes should never be made.

A turkey (no, not the programme) deep fat fried in oil, a trailer trash theme which backfired, Irish dancers performing on a bit of chipboard and one of the guests who attempted to speak in pigeon French were among the many low points of this show.

And, oh yes, there is the narrator who just cannot shut up. He is the voice over chap who is overly mouthy by a mile and to such an extent that he almost wants to hijack the central role in the show.

This is the same chap who, when the introduction to the programme was showing various streets in Galway city, identified it as where John Wayne’s The Quiet Man was made. Ah well, at least he was hearing his own voice which seemed very important to him throughout the five day farce.

We had Canadian Bruce, granny Mary, nurse Lisa, psychotherapist Peter and comedian Danny who was about as funny as our summers.

Bruce just complained from start to finish, Mary tried to act as if she was 40 years younger than she was, Lisa was possibly the most down to earth of the lot, Peter’s efforts to try and fit in were not successful while Danny efforts at comedy would not entice anyone to any of his performances.

For Declan’s full review see today’s Sentinel