Hungry for love? Try a TV dinner
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Your support makes all the difference.A NEW dating show from one of television's most successful production companies will take the genre into previously untapped territory when it goes on air in January.
Dishes is the latest innovation from Bazal, the company that put lifestyle programmes at the heart of the ratings war by tapping into and nurturing the growing British preoccupation with food and decor. The programme will be a very Channel Four challenge to the dominance of ITV's Blind Date.
Bazal, founded by Peter Bazalgette, is the hugely successful company behind Changing Rooms, Ready, Steady, Cook and Can't Cook, Won't Cook. Dishes, as the double entendre name suggests, combines one element which Bazal knows very well - food - with romance and the search for a hunky partner, in a twice-weekly early evening slot.
According to series producer, Matthew Littleford, Dishes is a "dating show with a twist" that capitalises on the growing preference among its 16 to 25-year-old target audience to find romance in a traditional setting: over the intimate dinner table for two.
"People don't want to go to a noisy, hot club any more. When they go on dates now they want to sit down and get to know each other and get away from the idea that a date will automatically lead to sex," he said.
Whether or not this is really the height of fashion, the programme will certainly offer the opportunity to explore the peculiarities of British taste.
Each programme will be self contained. A male or female "picker" will listen to three members of the opposite sex talking about themselves as they conjure up a concoction designed to win, not only the heart, but also the tastebuds of the picker.
The blindfolded picker will then taste each dish but, says Mr Littleford, their decision will be based on what they glean of each of the contestants' personalities as much as on their cooking skills.
Mr Littleford insists that the dishes on the programme are not intended to be fantastically elaborate or complicated: "It could be something you would cook for friends at home but the important point is that it says something about your personality."
Fair enough, but it is almost unimaginable that in any other country, the dishes on offer would include a tarted-up fish pie bought from the shops, spaghetti bolognese and Thai curry, as they did in the Dishes pilot programme.
The nature of the date itself is down to the picker on the proviso that it is food oriented. Expect picnics, restaurants and, for those who would rather take a more oblique and probably unsuccessful approach to the subject, fishing trips.
The programme's two presenters have yet to be announced but the people at Blind Date seem unconcerned about the potential challenge to the reign of Cilla.
"Blind Date is an institution that's been going for 14 years, and this programme doesn't sound much like it," said a spokeswoman at London Weekend Television.
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