Pudding

The first episode of new series of Sweet Baby James on BBC2 was pretty stodgy. I imagine the horrendous title and the gallery of photographs documenting James Martin's journey from sweet little boy to, well, rather less sweet man are designed to appeal to the succession of broody women who felt something stir within themselves during his appearances on Strictly Come Dancing. Once they were out of the way we were treated to a pretty ordinary cookery show, made watchable mainly due to the fascinating relationship between Martin and his boy acolyte, the wonderfully named, Will Torrent. Maybe this is how chefs and trainee chefs are in the kitchen, but on telly, more used to the pally-pally dynamic (cf. the uneven Neneh and Andi Dish It Up, immediately preceding), Martin's commands ("Get me a spatula!") and continual sniping at Torrent ("Got to keep your eye on him") just made him seem deeply unpleasant. This is on top of the many shots of Martin in his mid-life sports car, and barrow-boy hand jewellery, which were already doing the job of alienating this viewer perfectly well. Still, give it 12 months and Torrent will have his own BBC3 series - though it'll either be given an equally twee title, like 'Sugar Sugar', or a (sigh) 'controversial' BBC3 title, like 'Fuck Off, I'm A Chef, you Fuckwits'. Still, at least the shots of Castle Howard were free of the Brideshead Revisted theme, and that's something to be thankful for.