In all seriousness, Two Fat Ladies
should be commended for paving the way for the Lifestyle TV industry.
Not only did it bring cooking back into the mainstream, but it also
created a tone (in which the show is filmed as a relaxed conversation
over food rather than "presenting") by which most Cooking shows use as
a formula to this day.
It's a tantalising blend of cookery and
comic exploits as Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright tour
Britain on their vintage "Triumph Thunderbird" (you really do end up
feeling sorry for the poor old machine!) with Jennifer riding and
Clarissa wedged into a Watsonian Jubilee sidecar.
Their quest : to rediscover the delights of traditional home cooking using the freshest of ingredients.
Much like the excellent ABC series The Cook & The Chef
(a guilty Saturday morning hangover cure, I must admit) the ladies are
"cooks" not "chefs", in that they reject the pretensions and
elaborations of haute cuisine and are aggressively unfashionable
delighting in such ingredients as clotted cream, lard, garlic and fatty
meats.
They also seem to reject exercise and gravity....
United
by their enthusiasms, prejudices and unshakeable belief in their own
culinary experience the flamboyant ladies became worldwide stars. I can
still recall the Full Frontal
sketches to this day (which essentially just revolved around the phrase
"Let's add a bucket of laaaard") and cigarettes. However, the love of
all things fatty eventually caught up with them (one half of the team
is now "ceased to be").
The laid back atmosphere can often be a
both this first series' strength and it's weakness. While it gives a
fresh and unique take on the genre, the conversations tend to feel like
you are simply watching other people chat... while you are the loser
sitting in the corner not being included.
However, grab yourself a wine glass and a cigarettes... or nine and you will soon feel like part of the action. One of the great Lifestyle TV shows of all time. DVD EXTRAS
Not much at all included here. It seems to be the case with a lot of
these older UK series, simply video-to-dvd transfers without much
effort going into extras.
Oh well, can't win them all!
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: N/A
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