The Big Food Fight

Current revision as of 23:51, 26 December 2023

Synopsis

Boisterous panel game in which Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall faces a different guest foodie captain each week. Each captain is joined by a guest who may or may not have something to do with food. The rounds vary a little but generally include Ten of a kind (attempt to name 10 types of food or drink in a given category within 20 seconds), You were what you ate (a simple "name the year" clips round), some sort of taste test in which unusual flavours are incorporated into, say, an ice cream or a sausage, and a final quickfire round. One-off games have included identifying fish by touch alone and working out what unusual utensils are for.

Hugh and guest Sophie Dahl ponder an ancient torture device

There is much merriment, the odd tangent into food-related chat and a fair bit of plain mucking about, and the whole thing has a slight air of old-school daytime filler about it (for the record, this is a primetime show), but it's all jolly good inconsequential fun.

Clarissa Dickson-Wright attempts to poison Giles Coren. And she's probably not the first.
This RARE! publicity photo comes from a round that didn't make the final edit.

There are indications of a proper score being kept, but the numbers are never divulged to the viewer, who only gets to hear who's in the lead at the end of each round. Granted, it's not the sort of game in which anybody cares what the score is, but still, it would be nice if the show could maybe adopt the Just a Minute approach of giving us the winning margin even if we didn't get the actual numbers. That's mere quibbling, though. It's a fun show and while nobody's going to miss it if it doesn't get recommissioned, it passes half an hour agreeably and makes us laugh. Fair enough?

Theme music

Dylan Burns

Pictures

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sue Perkins

Publicity photo of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sophie Dahl, Sue Perkins, Clarissa Dickson-Wright and Giles Coren.

See also

Weaver's Week review

Feedback