The Supersizers Go? Wartime

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Ever watched Supersize Me and wondered: can’t we have more of this? After all, there are enough do-gooding food shows out there that can’t stop telling us how to eat  well and live in a cottage with bottle-raised chickens – but where’s the danger?

Happily filling this daredevil food hole comes Supersizers, where Giles Coren and Sue Perkins scoff themselves silly in the manner of various historical periods, while trying­ not to, a) leave a plate unfinished­, b) dribble, or c) have total organ failure. It’s fun.

It started well (ie. badly) when food critic Coren and comic Perkins went Edwardian in last year’s pilot. Sadly, tonight kicks off with them scoffing like it’s 1944. Yes, wartime meaning rationing, spam, potato soup and all food the colour of stains.

We were forced to eat well. If you’re forced now, chances are you’re a kid and it’s Jamie Oliver’s fault. Back then it was everyone and Adolf Hitler’s fault. Draw your own conclusions.

Of course, it’s still fun to watch them grimace  through. The best is the “national sausage­”, which contained only 3 per cent meat. The rest was made up of bread. But not just any loaf –“national loaf” bread, which didn’t contain much bread at all. A sausage sandwich was a sandwich-sandwich, or rather a bread-sandwich, without the bread.

Brilliantly, manners dictated­ it was rude to ask what anything was until after you’d put it in your mouth. A rule that must have caused havoc in the bedroom.

Still, it’s essentially two people chewing with horrified faces, filled mostly with information we already knew. Next up is Restoration England, when they didn’t sober up for whole seasons at a time. Now, that’s more like it.

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