Friday 15 May 2009

Whiter than White Hell's Kitchen

Advantages: Good viewing for chilling on the settee

Disadvantages: This series seems to have taken on an American editing style

I like this sort of television. 

I know it is not lofty and 'up there', but I like it. 

What is Hell's Kitchen. It could be described as a ccok off by a load of celebritys. 

You have eight celebritys working in Hell's Kitchen. They are taught and overseen by Marco Pierre White and his staff. The idea that a celbrity is voted out, ending up with a winner. In this series Marco chooses the first four to sack, with the public deciding the rest. That is basically it! 

The 'charm' of the program, if that is the right word, is watching the interaction between the group of egos... erm... I mean celebritys. The entertainment value is seeing egos slip up and metaphorically land on their backside. 

In previous series, if memory serves me right, it seems the show did concentrate a little more on the cooking and a lot more on the celebrity chef's downtime. 

In this particular series, there doesn't seem to be any consistency in the way the editors have wrapped it up for us. I like to think us Brits have reasonably wide attention span. In this series, the editors don't seem to be giving us this credit. The editing in this series seems to resemble that of Hell's Kitchen U.S. and The Apprentice U.S. Each where there are no scenes as such, instead there is an edit approx every two seconds. Hell's Kitchen UK seems to have gone down that route, although there are some lulls where the editor must have gone for a pee. 

No spoilers here, suffice to say that so far there has been a difficult character, which has brought a little spice to show and some cringeworthy moments. 

Like I said at the beginning, I really do like this show, but I am disappointed that so far the editing and presentation does not seem right. Fortunately we are relieved from the smug and sarcastic presenter that is Angus Deyton, and he has been replaced with the marginally better looking Claudia Winkleman. Deyton's attempts at humour have been replaced with Winkleman's attempts at fashion, which made me laugh more than Deyton ever would have. 

The star of the show (and he would have it no other way) is of course Marco Pierre White. His manner MUST be put on, had he not been a top chef, I am sure he would have ended up as an actor, winning muliple awards for playing the part of Marco Pierre White's alter ego. I have read a biography (or was it an auto..., I can't remember if he wrote it or not) and he grew up in Leeds on a typical working class estate, which begs the question - did he ever have a lovely Yorkshire accent, and, if so how would his cool calm exterior have come across, if he had kept this. Ay oop! 

The supporting role, if you like, is taken up by Marco's Maître d', Nick, whose surname escapes me at the moment. Nick embodies, if you like, a Gerry Anderson puppet in general, and Joe 90 to be specific. Marco is the puppeteer. Nick really sucks up to Marco when it matters - so would I if he was paying me. At other times he can let go and rip into Marco (sort of). Nick looks like the typical clumsy, weedy, speccy bloke, but really he does know what he is doing and seems to be a good egg. But he did fall on his bahookie and a tray of plates and food went everywhere. I would have preferred to see Angus Deyton make a fool of himself like this. 

Oh did I forget to mention who the celbrities are this year: 

Grant Bovey - Anthea's husband, businessman 
Danielle Bux - model 
Niomi Daley aka Ms Dynamite - singer 
Adrian Edmondson - comedian 
Linda Evans - actress 
Bruce Grobbelaar - former Liverpool goalkeeper 
Jody Latham - prize pillock 
Anthea Turner - television presenter. 

I haven't found this selection particularly exciting, but it is still early days. 

Catch it this week while it is still on.

Summary: Good watching for chilling out after your evening meal.

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