BBC axe huge cooking show after just one series as Britain ‘falls out of love with food’
COOKING shows appear to be going stale, with Sara Cox’s Britain’s Best Takeaways becoming the latest foodie series to face the chop.
I can reveal the BBC2 eight-parter won’t be returning for a second helping following its debut run last year.
Radio 2 DJ Sara and Dancing On Ice star Darren Harriott presented the show which saw the UK’s independent takeaways battle it out to be crowned the nation’s best.
But the series has been binned. This comes after the recent ditching of ITV’s Bad Chefs and Channel 4’s The Great Cookbook Challenge with Jamie Oliver.
A TV insider says: “The spate of axed cooking shows on the schedules suggest viewers are getting fed up with them.
“It seems like Britain has fallen out of love with food.
“It’s a saturated market with so much competition, so it’s no surprise really that some shows find it hard to stand out.
‘Leftover chips’
“But it’s particularly tough for Sara and Darren’s one to be culled after just a series as it didn’t have time to grow.”
Each instalment of Britain’s Best Takeaways featured five eateries from the same sector competing in the specially-built Top Takeaway Kitchen. The food was delivered to local households, who decided the winner.
But it’s clear viewers would rather get stuck into their own carry-out meals than watch them being made, given the brutal axing after just one batch of episodes.
Launching the show last May, Sara said: “When I first heard about this show they had me at takeaway!
“Especially in recent times, it has become something of an event in our house.
“I’m thrilled to be celebrating the takeaway and finding the very best in Britain.
“And if that means eating all the leftover chips and putting on half a stone, so be it.”
She might want to have a word with funnyman Mo Gilligan, who shares the belief that there are too many cooking shows on telly.
Speaking last summer, he said: “There’s a lot of great Saturday TV, but there’s a lot of cooking stuff going on on Saturdays.”
Not in my kitchen, there isn’t.
David is Fawl go
DAVID WALLIAMS is eyeing a role in the forthcoming reboot of Fawlty Towers.
The ex-Britain’s Got Talent judge is a big fan of comedy legend John Cleese and would love to work with him on the return of the sitcom classic.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge says: “To my mind the man can do no wrong, so if he wants to revive Basil Fawlty, then let him do it, and I would work with him in a heartbeat.”
David says old-school comedies, such as his cult show Little Britain, are still popular with the public – including his ten-year-old son Alfred.
He says: “You could do Little Britain now, but you could do it differently. My son’s into a lot of comedy films like Anchorman, Borat, Austin Powers. God, I love these, I laugh my head off at all of them.
“I look at all those things. I’m not sure you could do them, but you’d get criticism for it.”
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is making a three-part documentary for Netflix. The Terminator star will provide candid interviews about his life and career which took him from a small town in Austria to Hollywood to then become the Governor of California. Arnold launches on June 7.
Hair we go for Crouch
SWAPPING football for primetime telly has left Peter Crouch considering a few nips and tucks.
The former England striker has been a hit as a panellist on ITV’s The Masked Dancer and the host of Save Our Summer but he admits the high-profile roles have made him think about surgery in future.
The confession came after wife Abbey Clancy brought up treatments for hair loss on their The Therapy Crouch podcast.
She said: “I’m telling you now, if I was a man, I’d get a hair transplant.”
Peter added: “I’m not against it. If your forehead turns into a fivehead, I think something needs to be addressed. It’s something I would look into.”
Thatch Of The Day, anyone?