There are many great food and cookery shows on television these-days, Sunday Brunch (courtesy of Channel Four) is not one of them. The show is hosted by two guys that have a very particular style, Tim Lovejoy and Simon Rimmer. This is a show about “banter” and not batter. Banter is a difficult recipe to get right, it needs the following ingredients: a decent portion of self-confidence, a good measure of verbal dexterity and polish, and a pinch of wit. If you try to create banter with nervousness, monosyllabic earpiece prompted blurts (so Derren, I understand you have a parakeet)  and a complete lack of wit you get a big soggy mess. Striding through this cringe-making dough ball of a show are “celebrities” of varying degrees of desperation promoting themselves (their book, music etc) or, even worse, appearing as part of a contractual obligation to promote another show. Many of them, one can easily see, do not want to be there. Apart from the stodgy “banter” this is a show that attempts to be “chilled” and matey a la Jamie Oliver, it does not work. Commenting in The Sun, a Channel 4 producer claims:

“Simon and Tim have brilliant on-screen chemistry and their partnership will be at the heart of Sunday Brunch.” Tim and Simon themselves say  “We’re chuffed to be joining Channel 4. We have a great laugh working together.”

Of course BBC2 dropped them. Just like Channel Four has dropped a real gem this week, Time Team. This followed their failed attempt to introduce archeology celebs to the format, a move which ruined an excellent and well respected show. All is not doom and gloom, if you know where to look there is excellent programming featuring celebrity chefs you may not have heard of! More of that as we go along.