More from the lovely Paul Jackson, who was on ebullient form at yesterday’s Broadcasting Press Guild lunch. This time the topic was Gordon Ramsay and honesty was the dish of the day.
The executive, clearly a little hurt by the expletive-tastic chef’s decision to sign up to Channel 4 for four years, said that he felt let down. Apparently the fiery Ramsay had all but signed on the dotted line — at least, he’d indicated that he was an ITV man on the Saturday of ITV1’s Soccer Aid final.
Sadly a day is a long time in TV land and sure enough by the following Monday, Kevin Lygo was able to rub his hands with glee.
Now on the face of it, Jackson may be saying that Ramsay’s decision was fair enough, all’s fair in love and TV, and that he’s looking forward to having lots of him on ITV1 this autumn (in the form of the American take on Hell’s Kitchen), but here is what he really thinks of the former Glasgow Rangers footballer’s new Channel 4 show:
“If Gordon thought The F-Word was the answer, I don’t know what he thought the question was because The F-Word is a pile of poo. I am not alone in thinking that he has injected a lot of Hell’s Kitchen into the middle of the show.”
Ouch.
He's right.
It is just Hell's Kitchen but with an 'edgier' (supposedly) sounding name. Except it's a title which suggests there should be more glamorous lesbians from LA rolling about in creme fraiche featured in it.
Oh no. That would be on LivingTV, not Channel 4 these days.
Unless they were TEENAGE lesbians from LA and it was written by someone who used to be a bit gay but isn't now (Jackie Clune maybe?) because that's far more minority programming.
Actually, I think I'd still be more inclined to watch that than The F-Word....
Whatever DID happen to Channel 4 being an edgy minority-programming channel, anyway?