Radio Times

Have you ever felt nervous at the prospect of friends coming over to dinner, wondering whether your cooking will be up to scratch? Now imagine doing the same with four complete strangers coming to dinner.

Welcome to the marvellous world of Come Dine with Me, surely the most under-rated of TV's numerous food programmes. It is a hidden gem in Channel 4's daytime schedule.

Some may moan about yet another cookery show, but that misses the point. Come Dine with Me is not just another dreary cookery show. It is more about how best to throw a dinner party and how a diverse group of people interact with each other.

Every week five contestants take turns to host, with the other four contestants as the guests. Each party is marked out of ten by the guests, and the person with the most points at the end of the week wins £1,000.

At this point you may be wondering what the fuss is all about - surely it's just a reality show operating on a limited budget? Well, the genius of the production team lies in their ability to dredge up some truly remarkable contestants. They seem to fall into four broad categories:

* The dynamic young executive, keen to impress with his - and believe me, it is always a man - knowledge of classic French food and the fine wines of the Bordeaux region

* The geezer who can turn out a mean chilli and who tries to convince his guests he is a good host by plying them with enough cheap lager to sink a battleship

* The person so fond of a country's cuisine that they insist on making everyone eat in an appropriate style, ie preparing a Moroccan meal to be eaten sitting on scattered cushions with a belly dancer for entertainment and a hookah pipe for afters

* The fairly competent chef who enjoys cooking for friends but finds the pressure of being appraised by strangers a bit too much and who hits the cooking sherry

Here's some of my favourite moments: the boozy old fella who drunk so much that by the time he came to make crepes suzette for dessert he couldn't tell that he was using a green liqueur instead of orange - they didn't look too appetising; the socially inept woman who refused to let a woman in her house as she'd arrived 15 minutes early; and the insane woman who hated puddings but who insisted on trying them, and then when she didn't like the first mouthful, spitting it out and putting it in her handbag.

Let loose in each other's houses the contestants invariably show a childlike glee in snooping around, generally behaving like the worst sort of house guest imaginable. That is why I love Come Dine with Me, it's almost like a social experiment, forcing people to mix with other obnoxious people to see how they cope. Occasionally there is even someone who can cook a decent meal.

watched come dine with me last night 28th nov really good show were did the ladie with the black style tux get her dress from?

This programme is a wonderful, and often hilarious, slice of life. A fantastic combination of nerves, drink and the desire to impress brings out the worst - and sometimes the best- of most of the contestants. A great TV format which works best as five programmes with a wonderfully droll commentary from Dave Lamb it is still very entertaining as a one hour show particularly when so-called 'celebrities' are involved and we get to see they are just as dull or entertaining as every one else. Highlights for me are the unbelievably rude and snobbish Pippa who left one of guests on the doorstep for fifteen minutes 'as she wasn't ready'(!), Forbes the Scottish tee totaller ( that flat! and serving his guests pigs trotters! ) and the lovely dress shop owner from Sheffield who glammed up every night and told a very poignant story about how she left her husband and children for the driver of the bus she got every morning to work! Brilliant entertainment and all human life is there.

Just another note to agree that the old format was FAR superior and that my husband and I used to love watching together every day - and there are not many programs that fit into THAT category! He suggests that every host gets to give a mark for each of his guests and interestingly, in the French version of the programme, each person gives three marks - the food, the decor and the ambience!

Richenda's Aga Saga

Come Dine with Me, is sheer entertainment from start to finish. One's voyeuristic tendencies are satisfied to a tee by being able to view other people's kitchens and interiors. Don't we just love seeing what menus the participants have conjured up? And of course thinking what we might make ourselves, should we be brave enough to take part. Then the high achieved when someone excels and you want to shout bravo, well done, you deserve to win. The program makes passions run high, for all sorts of reasons and is always a great talking point with friends & family.

It is usual to find me muttering under my breath that the contestants are doing this or that wrong, or else I am cringing at their lack of hygiene when cooking foods for others, but this week Richenda from Gloucestershire had me actually shouting at the television. Please, please if you know Richenda ask her to visit her nearest Aga shop and book up to attend a demonstration called "A Day in the Life of an Aga" - this will show her how to use her Aga correctly. The poor Aga was used in all manner of incorrect ways then at the end of the show she said it had run out of heat - no wonder she had the boiling plate lid up for most of the program although nothing was actually cooking on the hotplate.

She melted chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, there is no need to do this with an Aga, simply place a heatproof bowl containing the chocolate, uncovered on the floor of the simmering oven and hey presto, melted chocolate in about 15 minutes. Richenda also killed the yeast in her Foccacia before it was cooked as she put it to prove in the warming then simmering oven, both, although of gentle heat, are too hot for proving bread and will kill the yeast before the all important cooking stage is reached. I could go on and on. Think I have lost the plot? I am an Aga cookery demonstrator and do so hate to hear people saying unkind things about their Agas when the Aga has not been at fault.

Tanya should have been disqualified. She didn't even try. Wouldn't like to have been her watching herself on TV. It says everybody has 5 minuites of fame - hers didn't do her any favours.

i live in a motor home near shrewsbury and i would love to host one of the dinner parties ! it would be quite a challenge to knock up something palatble for my guests in such a limited space,but i am sure that it could be managed ! any offers ? have MH can travel !!!!!

Come dine with me is yet another example of the modern appetite for freak shows. Watching people and judging them to be so different and inferior to ourselves is apparently still entertaining.

The producers clearly create this show from many hours of video material carefully edited down to 20 minutes or so of the worse aspects of the participant's behaviour. Add rather predictable and patronising narration and you have a "successful" programme. How refreshing it would be to produce an episode where participants are shown at their best, not "Good TV" perhaps but it might just catch on.

if i would of had tanya at my dinner party i would of asked her to leave she was so misrable!!!!

Superb programme, for an average cook like me it's great to see someone set themselves up as an expert then fall flat on their faces! Some of them are so obnoxious you feel like slapping them (Pippa from a couple of weeks ago, Tania from last week and the aforementioned Chyna - Rachel, I admire your restraint!).

I also prefer the half hour programmes, although much of that is a recap of what has happened previously which can get a bit irritating...

I love it! Always have and always will! I so want to be on it! Unlike that Tanya one on this week's lot, why go on a programme that is about liking food, entertaining and socialising if you obviously like any of those? Dave Lamb is fabulous too, he is hysterical!

What a shame marks aren't deducted for miserable guests otherwise the snooty female would have come last ,she was determined not to like anyone elses meals,I was hoping that the others would maybe plan to vote one of the others top just so she wouldn't win. At least she had to share first place so I was pleased about that. Hope she cringes when she sees herself and how awful she came across.

Love the show though,it's definitely my favourite.

Come Dine With Me is just brilliant - the voice-overs are so apt! Unfortunately never saw the first series - is it available on DVD? Would love to take part but would dread the thought of what would be said about me or the house, particularly as I don't appear to have a cupboard - or shed - stuffed full of shoes!

I was the Spanish cook from Bristol who made ten tapas and only got one point from Chyna as we were all boring! Great show too watch and do.

Come Dine with me is great - love it - I much prefer the old format of half hour programmes. I always make sure I've got it on my Sky+. My 16 month old son even recognises the title music! I can't help but hear Harry Hill in Dave Lamb, he's great so sarcastic

I absolutely love this show and have been hooked from the beginning as ahs my husband. We have also been enjoying the repeats when it is not being screened in the during the week. It was refreshing this week to see a vegetarian actually cooking meat dishes for the non-veggies. One memorable episode in the first series had a hostess sending away one of her guests who had arrived too early. I sometimes find it hard to believe that these people actually exist! Dave Lamb's comments make this an unmissable program. Long live CDWM

I absolutley love Come Dine With Me. I am a self confessed addict of this show. I even "Sky +" the ones I'm going to miss and have our nine year daughter old hooked too!! Dave Lamb does a great job as the voice of reason!! I love the fact that those who claim to be super prepared having spent their entire morning visiting the most exquisite village deli and bob the butcher (who has, of course, been trading since time began) to ensure they use nothing but the very highest quaility produce in all of their wierd and wonderful creations, then get home only to realise they have no milk!! Brilliant! How we laugh at the misfortune of others!! Long live the show and Dave Lamb!!

Totally agree the voice over is one of the funniest parts of the program, but some of the contestants, I wonder if the cringe when they some of them see themselves.... Glad its back and with the old format, was not not keen on the hour episode. We were all living on Sunday's on more4. Best moments are Forbes and the two men from Swansea!

I never miss this program, always someone who thinks they are the bee knees and I love it when goes wrong. The swansea week and the week when the scots man burnt his pudding under the grill, have been some of the episodes we all have laughed at.

Enjoying the new series so far.....

I too have been hooked on this from the start, it is one of the best current progs on tv by far!

I am also glad to see it's back to the old format and also is an hour later.

My Sunday evenings are now spent vegging out watching repeats on More4!

Totally agree that voiceover man makes the programme, he is hilarious.

My favourite programmes were the ones from Ayr, I have seen them 3 times now and they still make me laugh out loud! Forbes and snobby Lizzy were stars, and the comments hilarious!

a great programme, I enjoy watching just to see how really bad some cooks are. The girl on 1st August was something else, she had no idea of time and once again the commentary was brilliant, can the cook hear him or is it put on later? Last weeks shows were also good as there was a lot of friction which does not happen that often amazingly, people seem very tolerant, perhaps it's the drink!! Great show keep it going even if it's our secret.

i love come dine with me because it gives me doable recipies not to complicated and also just watching stangers trying not to kill each other that is so hilarious prefer it to big brother.

One of the best programmes on TV at the moment, and probably not watched by many. Do you they know what they are missing? The interaction between the guests is better than any 'Big Brother', and more true to life. Whoever does the voice-over is brilliant. The food is usually rubbish, but who cares? It makes it more fun watching the disasters, and listening to the rude comments from the guests! However, I am not too keen on the one hour shows broadcast in the evening. Four people aren't enough, and there isn't enough time for the 'snooping' amongst the host's wardrobes and drawers!!

I love this programme too and have watched from the start. I love the half hour each day format builds the tension and excitement. Love the celebrity one a few weeks ago. Greatest running commentary on T.V

This is the best regular programme on the tv by far. The voice over man makes it, he is hilarious. I've had to leave work early for the past couple of weeks to catch the daily episode (and ive seen most of them before). Thankfully its now on at 5.30

Hooray, it's back. And in the original format with five episodes. I love this show. I came to it late, when the Cambridge episodes were aired and was hooked from the start. Thank goodness for repeats, I think I have now caught up. Yes it is underrated, but isn't it rather nice to belong to the elite band of devotees?

Yes the programme is excellent. I think my wife Heather and I have watched each episode several times over as they are repeated on Sunday afternoons.

It is a shame however that they have changed the format with it now being one hour long, rather than its initial five half hour programmes. You miss the original theme tune and the longer time allocated to each contestant.

Although having said that it is better seeing the whole thing brought to a conclusion in one piece rather than spread out over the week. As usual all the programmes are held together by the brilliant commentary.

Forbes(Fraser) from Ayr with his 'pigs trotters' meal has been without doubt our star chef.

Most definitely the most under-rated program ever! I absolutely love this program and I cannot wait for the new series. Classic TV. The episode based in Newcastle was the most hilarious episode in Come Dine With Me history!