Come Dine with Me

Much of the world regarded France as the home of good food. If the English ate to live then the French lived to eat it was said. But much has changed in England in the last 30 years or so. Never have so many taken such interest in good food. The dullness and poor quality of English "cuisine" has been replaced by ultra-cosmopolitan and much more skillful versions. All stimulated very largely by television.

The model for civilised dining both at its most formal and as a refined pleasure was French. In a sense it became the European ideal of civilised living - good food, good conversation overseen by a host who combined cooking as well as subtle human skills.

But England has very recently produced an illegitimate and ugly offspring - a boorish variant which (and who) while skilled in the technicalities - the preparation and the judging of food, even the aesthetics of the dining environment is entirely deficient in feelings. Worse than psychopathic where there may be attempts to conceal this, boorishness can be worn as a badge of pride.

So we have Come Dine With Me - reality TV in which contestants in fact competitors, sometimes aggressive, are brought together in a latter day bear pit to chew at each others food - and legs - in return, like most distasteful activities, for a large amount of cash. As in a version of The Prisoners Dilemma each must decide a strategy - be nice and hope to get good marks from the others or be nasty all round. Many opt for compromise: publicly complimentary to the host then rude about everything and everyone each time they are alone with the camera. Many confide to the camera their own immeasurable skills and the others' manifold defects. Meals, unsurprisingly are frequently tense affairs where a host who had previously boasted on camera struggles to match a quarter of his or her boasts. We the audience look with interest as sometimes there are glimpses of skill and originality but more interestingly we see vanity crushed before our eyes, if we are lucky one or more of the competitors become distressed and tearful. Like Big Brother its conceptual stable-mate we are encouraged to watch bloodless combat. Civilised dining has become in Come Dine with Me simply eating and backbiting.

COME DINE WITH ME now occupies a large slice of Channel 4's daytime schedule, with episodes running at lunchtime, late afternoon and most of Saturday afternoon. Channel 4's sister station More4 runs more episodes in the early evening. Watching several episodes back to back allows certain themes to emerge: the food selection by each contestant is often repetitive; the contestants have entrenched attitudes; their judgments are affected very much by the desire to win the competition; and all of them are more than ready to act in front of the ubiquitous television camera. Dave Lamb's narration contributes to the overall jokey atmosphere, as he makes fun of the contestants' pretensions. From a sociological perspective, however, COME DINE WITH ME is a fascinating text, as it encapsulates within each twenty-five-minute episode the enduring class, gender and age prejudices of most of the contestants. Anyone who thinks that contemporary Britain has changed in terms of its social structure, as compared with, say, half a century ago, would have their assumptions readily undermined here. Snobberies, racial prejudices, and gender jealousies still exist, even if they are perhaps more politely expressed than they might have once been.

Come Dine With Me, a staple of British and Irish TV screens during dinner time. Some of the memorable TV moments came from CDWM. It must be said, the show would just not be what it is without Dave Lamb, the voice-over host/narrator. His dry-wit always delivers a chuckle.

The format is simple but very fun, and all the recipes are put up on the channel's website (for better or worse!) I used to watch this show all the time as a kid, and I put that down to Lamb. One of the first meals I cooked was an Indian curry dish I saw on the show. If you're ever flicking through the channels, it's worth a stop at CDWM.

I normally loathe reality television but this series is quite addictive.

It offers the viewer into the homes and lives of a group of ordinary people who , thankfully, and unusually in terms of reality TV , don't expect to get a career out of it.

Its fascinating to see the way that "normal" people conduct themselves on TV.Vanities are often reduced to a million tiny pieces, sometimes amusingly so.A fine example being the hairdresser who wanted to be surrounded by beautiful people " like you'd find in the pages of Hello".

Clearly this individual has no self awareness and no mirror. I watch this show religiously.

In an age where the reality programme is king, alongside cookery, makeover shows, and murder mysteries, 'Come Dine With Me' is one of the better offerings, mainly because of the absolutely awful contestants and the witty, sarcastic voiceovers by Dave Lamb. Without his input, this would not have much going for it.

Originally the format was one dinner party per episode, with a group of episodes representing each contest - more recently, this has changed so everything is dealt with during one edition. This has probably gained more viewers as there isn't so much of a commitment involved should you want to see the whole contest leading to the £1,000 prize.