A perfect world

Gareth Malone's Extraordinary School for Boys

Watching Nigella making a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, it struck me that she is the sort of person you should really have running some sort of convalescent home for invalids. She would soon build up their strength with homemade chicken soup and extra-rich puddings. Similarly, if you were going to run a school, you would want Gareth Malone in charge of lessons and Jamie Oliver cooking the dinners. Both of these guys have recently had cameras tailing them as they try to improve standards, usually against stony-faced opposition. 

Gareth Malone first appeared on our screens as a choirmaster who took non-singers from schools, and later whole communities, and showed them the joys of trying something new, practising till it hurt, and competing as a team. He may look geeky, but he quietly has a will of steel and isn't afraid of naysayers, the reluctant or the lazy. Now he is taking his inspiring brand of innovation to that neglected group; pre-teen boys. As our schools seem pretty ineffective in general, the fact that boys get left behind girls is mere side note. Is it a lack of male role models? Is the current style of teaching / testing more suited to girls? Or are girls just ore academically minded? 

Gareth got the boys interested in reading, and involved their fathers in a camping trip with a good old-fashioned storytelling session around the campfire. Despite the headmistress's doubts, the boys did of course enter into Gareth's spirit of competition (the ace card when dealing with kids) and surpassed expectations. Being able to DO STUFF is empowering for children – whether it's reading, cooking, starting a fire or reading a map. With Gareth's regime, boys blossom and realise that they CAN achieve. 

Unfortunately schools are resistant to change, as Jamie has found out while taking his culinary expertise to Huntingdon, West Virginia (America's fattest city). Maybe it was a mistake to constantly refer to the "American diet", as if the rest of us aren't stuffing our faces with chicken nuggets and cream cakes (I know I am). It's all played for drama as Jamie has stand-offs with the burly dinnerladies, cries, and bemoans the carb, carb and double carb makeup of the school dinners. But he genuinely cares about the kids who are being trained up to be seriously obese, by the adults who should know better. Will Jamie change the world one meal at a time? With Oprah on his side, let's hope so!

Delightful Miss Dahl

It has been said that I’m cynical; jaded, even. My first blog was about how it isn’t really fun to go out on New Year’s eve. When this was published on a review site, it was accompanied by advertisements for anti-depressants. This tells you everything you need to know about society’s attitude to anyone whose opinion differs from the norm. (If “normal” is being so bored with the company of your friends that you need to chug a bottle of tequila before you can tolerate their presence with any semblance of enjoyment.)

Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that sometimes I will unashamedly crap rainbows all over something I like.

I couldn’t resist checking out the first series of The Delicious Miss Dahl after reading many scathing reviews. The media has relished giving Miss Dahl a good chewing up and spitting out (OK, I’ll stop the food metaphors now) for daring to share her cookery style with us. The general feeling seemed to be “Who does she think she is? Just because her grandfather was a writer, and she’s a model / writer... and why is she calling herself delicious?” “We’ll be the judges of that,” wrote one grumpy critic. After the first episodes hit our TVs, there was quite a gossip storm. Sophie is trying to out-do Nigella... she can’t even cut ciabatta right... she doesn’t know what she’s doing....

So you can see why I couldn’t resist a peek. What I found surprised me. It turns out Sophie is perfectly sufficient at kitchen duty. She's vaguely similar to Nigella, in that she's attractive and voluptuous, and makes flirtatious little asides to the cameraman. All I can say is, the world is big enough for two sexy cooks. As for their culinary prowess or lack thereof, it’s not as if either of them is claiming to be a chef at the Savoy. (It’s ENTERTAINMENT, people!)

Miss Dahl is like the kindly head girl at Malory towers. She speaks frightfully nicely, and sprinkles conversation with sighs about how romantic second-hand book shops and graveyards are. Not to mention those cosy anecdotes about her grandparents.

She has an easy way with the camera, frequently dissolving into giggles, and makes you feel as if you are sitting in the kitchen with a cup of tea chatting to your friend while she gets on with the cooking.

Dividing the programmes into useful themes such as “romance” and “escapism,” Miss Dahl proved herself to be utterly charming, with plenty of genuinely useful cooking tips and meals which looked yummy, contrary to the dour opinions I’d heard.

I do hope Sophie gets a second series. I found her immensely likable and entertaining, so there critics! Save your roasts for someone who deserves them....