Jamie's Christmas with Bells On

So let's kick off with something seasonal and festive, Jamie Oliver's latest Christmas cook show. It was shown for the first time last night (14th December) on Channel 4 and features loads of recipes to make on Christmas Eve, so you get ahead and are ready for Christmas the next day!

Trailer for Jamie's Christmas with Bells On

I love all cookery shows like this, especially the Christmas themed ones. I wasn't even feeling particularly festive when I put it on, but within 5 minutes I was excitedly looking up recipes and planning to make them for Christmas. There are some great recipes in this show too; my favourite is Griddle Pan Waffles and Epic Hot Chocolate, literally mouth-watering and they look so easy! Some of the recipes were a bit beyond me though and seemed like they needed rather a lot of preparation which, unless you are actually Jamie Oliver and could do it in the recommended time of a morning, would take about 3 days (ok, an exaggeration, but you know what I mean).

Nom nom nom

As well as all the yummy looking food, there was the typical Jamie Oliver banter with his Italian mentor Gennaro, Jamie's family getting involved and just general Jamie Oliver being a bit of an idiot in a funny, lovable sort of way. I wanted to find clips of some of the funny moments to put in, but it seems no-one has uploaded any so you'll just have to watch the show if you want to see them! To sum up, there's a nice shot of Jamie getting into his 'Christmas groove' whilst blending up some stuffing, as well as Gennaro dressed up as a giant Christmas turkey complete with a little turkey dance and Jamie playing practical jokes on him. Jamie's mum, wife and (I assume) daughters all make appearances too to add to the family feel of this Christmas special.

The only criticism I have of this programme is the awkwardness that is felt when certain people are 'helping out' on camera. For example, when Jamie's wife Jools comes in with their baby daughter to help out, she doesn't seem very comfortable or happy, and she certainly doesn't match her husband's cheery and jokey personality. To be fair though, she's only on for about two minutes, so I wouldn't let it spoil what I would call a brilliant, entertaining and yummy Christmas special!

This programme has it all as far as I'm concerned. There are great, helpful recipes, Christmas jumpers galore, comedy moments and a generally lovely festive feeling surrounding the whole show!

First TV Chatterings

I've attempted to blog several times before and usually I write a couple of eager posts and then get fed up, leaving a trail of half-hearted attempts across the internet (at this point, who's to say it won't happen again with this blog? Hopefully not...) So, I've decided if I really want to keep myself, let alone anyone else, interested I need to write about something I enjoy doing and am interested in, and sad as it may sound, TV and films tick this box rather nicely! 

I'm aiming not to really review programmes, but more to comment on them really. It will probably seem like I'm pretty one-sided; there really aren't going to be many heavily negative comments, cos who watches a TV shows that they think is rubbish for more than about 15 minutes before flicking over to a Friends re-run or the Simpsons or something? There will be some current stuff, but as a university student who relies on iPlayer, 4od and the like, as well as re-runs and new discoveries of old American comedies, there may be a few blasts from the past too!