COME 'WHINE' WITH ME..!! (Come Dine With Me)

Member Name: Wee_Jackie_163

Product:	Come Dine With Me
Date:	20/04/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: AN ENTERTAINING WATCH

Disadvantages: THE CELEBRITY VERSION

Come dine with me is a television show that is shown on Channel 4 in which five (sometimes four) members of the public are to host a dinner party in turn, for the other four/three guests, who will then rate their efforts, and give them a score out of 10 points.

The said contestants have never met before, and are all complete strangers. Before they meet up for the first time, the unfortunate first host has an even more difficult task than the other hosts later on in the week, as everyone is always a bit more nervous and slightly giddier on the first night.

Each host creates their own menu and can choose how many courses it contains etc. The menu for that host is then circulated around their opponents, so that they can give their opinion on what they will be served that evening. One by one, all of the contestants are introduced to us by the narrator. He gives a brief background to each person, such as their occupation, and there are usually a few witty comments from the narrator throughout the show on the whole, but at this point in particular.

We are usually given the treat of showing that night's particular host walking around shops and wine stores, making purchases for the evening ahead.

After that, it's back to the host's house, and the cameras basically film them making the preparations for their feast that evening. We are also given an insight into any little cheating tactics that may have taken place, like whether the host has bought ready-chopped vegetables or herbs instead of standing peeling and chopping them all by themselves!!

Once the preparations have been done (or in some cases, not), it's usually the case that the host pops upstairs for a quick change of clothing and a ditch of their apron! They can usually be seen fixing their hair or doing up their shirt or whatever, whilst running to the door to answer the doorbell! Yes, that IS your guests arriving already! Tsk!

The guests, once arrived, are introduced to each other on the first night, and then they have the opportunity to look around their host's home - no area is off bounds, may I add - as much or as little as they like, and I particularly like this part of the show, as the comments some of the guests make about their hosts décor tastes and curtains and things are usually really funny. It also makes for quite entertaining viewing when some of the contestants start to rake about in the wardrobes and bathroom cabinets and the like. Eeeek!

It is then usually the case that the host for the evening calls the other diners to the table and voila! Dinner is served! I particularly like it when we can see that one diner doesn't think much of their host's cooking, usually obvious by various grimaces and wincing facial expressions!

The viewers are then shown the dining contestants commenting and giving their opinions on the starter. After the main course, the same ritual happens; we get to hear what each diner thought of the cooking, and the host's presentation etc.

The final segment of the programme is when we see each of the dining contestants travelling home (usually in a black taxi) and they each give their thoughts about the whole evening, and their host's hosting skills, and the like. The contestants then each give the host for the evening a mark out of 10, which is shown by them each holding up a card with the score on it, and explaining their reasons for giving that score.

We are usually also at this point, shown that evening's host, who gives a small statement to say whether they thought the night was a success or not, and why. They then can usually be seen starting to load the dishwasher, or attempting to clean the table, that sort of thing.

The point of the show is really to see which of the four or five diners has the highest score at the end of the week, given by tallying up all the points rated by their guests at the end of the night that they host. The contestant with the highest score of the week receives the prize of £1,000 cash and is crowned the winner. It is the job of the host on the final night of the week to announce the scores, starting with which diner came in last place, and continuing until the winner is announced.

I have been a fan of the show for the past couple of years. I think the reason that I like it so much is that it is reality TV of a sort, which I love. The people featured in the programme are members of the public, and I find that this makes the programme very entertaining, as they are obviously all complete strangers to each other and different personalities on the show can be rivals at times!

That, coupled with my enjoyment of cookery shows in general makes this a very entertaining programme for me. I like the fact that there is no celebrity involvement in the show; we are shown real people, in real houses, cooking real food. No chefs. No restaurants. No celebrity.

Well unless, of course, you count the celebrity version of the show, that is. Yes, the programme's producers obviously felt it necessary to jump on the celebrity-TV bandwagon, and delivered us with those Z-listers showing us (usually rather pompously) around their elaborate homes and cooking the most bizarre 'delicacies'. I would not recommend the celebrity version of the show half as much as I would rate the 'normal' show.

For one thing, the celebrities are usually too busy talking themselves up to be much of a host, with the exception of a small handful. It's just not as entertaining to see the celebrity version, in my opinion anyway.

I am deducting one star because the celebrity version irritates me, I'm afraid. I wish TV producers didn't feel the need to produce celebrity versions of programmes that I enjoy watching - I think it generally makes them loose their appeal.

The programme is currently repeated on a Sunday on "More 4", if you have digital TV, or can be seen sporadically on Channel 4, usually in the afternoon or tea-time.

Thank you for reading!

Summary: COME DINE WITH ME OR COME 'WHINE' WITH ME?!?!