The Supersizers Go...

I caught the 70's episode of this by accident, and was hooked at once.

The premise of the programme is the presenters eat foods of a certain era in history each week, and see the effect on their bodies.

The on screen partnership of Giles Coren and Sue Perkins crackles with energy,and I couldn't really imagine this working as well if it was anybody else presenting now that I've seen them doing it.

The other episodes that I have managed to see are the Regency and Restoration,but still holding out the hope of seeing the others at some stage.

In these days of trash TV, it's great to see the BBC producing a programme that is both entertaining, and educational.

What does surprise me, is the fact that you can't buy this programme on DVD, and the BBC have no plans to release it! It can't cost that much to produce a DVD of a programme that is already made, and I bet it would sell more units than some of the tripe that is released! If you haven't seen this programme, keep an eye open for any repeats, you won't be disappointed.

This tour through England's culinary history was most entertaining as Sue Perkins and Giles Coren dressed in the clothes and ate the foods from six periods: Elizabethan, Restoration, Regency, Victorian, Second World War and the 1970s.

Each of the six episodes started with them getting a health check... and usually being warned that the planned diet wouldn't be very good for them. The then dressed up and took the roles of a couple living in the specific era. Much of the food looked less than appealing and such delights as boiled calf's head must have given vegetarians nightmares.

The two presenters were both very entertaining, although they are clearly not taking the roles too seriously and frequently ended up quite drunk... solely for realism of course. Over the course of the week they sample various types of food from that eaten at formal occasions by the rich to that eaten by the less well off. They were frequently joined by experts on the periods concerned and would discuss the food with them explaining what class of people would eat what foods. At the end of each episode they returned to the doctor for a second check up with results that were sometimes surprising.

While it is easy to laugh at what people ate in the past I'm sure that people will look back on what we ate now with equal amusement in the future. I hope that there is another series one day although I'm not sure what time periods they would cover.

This is an intriguing and enjoyable series. The attention to detail is incredible and the hosts are witty and engaging. The series that cover the earlier periods are perhaps more interesting and yet shocking for the use of offal and small animals no longer considered proper or appropriate for eating. The coverage of political, cultural and socioeconomic history is also entertaining if not always thorough, as this is entertainment after all. The one thing I find a little disturbing is how frequently Sue Perkins is put in silly subservient positions (Damsel in Distress, housewife, desperate sister looking for marriage), while Giles goes off for some amazing meal and champagne with a group of men. In the War Years for instance, Sue is left at home when there were plenty of women working--some even in Churchill's war room, I suspect. I think the producers could have been more imaginative with Sue's roles, and not leaned so heavily on sexist clichés about women of each period. It would have been a firm 9/10 for me, if this had not been the case.

Engaging, interesting, and funny! Great entertainment and needs to be streaming somewhere.

And that's just the presenters. This show is available on Hulu now, which for me means I would not care whether it turns up on DVD at this point. I like the silliness of it, the comic relief between courses, so to speak.

Giles Coran seems to think he is funnier than Sue Perkins, but she is funnier than he thinks he is.

The historical insight into what people ate (and what they did not eat) is fascinating. You learn about the politics of food, too, albeit from a certain perspective. You learn how people's food habits can be self-destructive. (During the Restoration, for example, people drank to excess, ate meat but not vegetables and then wondered why they developed terrible health problems.)

The idea of forcing Ms. Perkins into wifey roles might seem sexist to some, but it reflects reality in the majority of eras and shows us what it was really like for many women. Besides, Ms. Perkins makes hilarious fun of these situations and she does sometimes cross gender lines.