Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury Come Dine With Me isn't a classic dish

And so it begins; Shropshire's turn to serve up the fights, the fall-outs, the feuds and, somewhere in among all the action, the food.

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That's the format, but this week's Come Dine With Me looks like being a more sedate Salopian affair.

The clues to a great CDWM?run are always in the opening sequence, where canny producers lure you in with tantalising clips of walk-outs, rows, bust-ups or straightforward cooking disasters.

Last night's starter for ten was a bit of gentle teasing, a minor food flop and the meekest of 'rows' about class system and how to pronounce Shrewsbury.

On this meagre starter, it's not going to be a classic week on Channel 4's 5.30pm slot.

  • Catch up with the episode on 4oD

As befits our fair county, the people are all nice: a radio DJ, a travelling lightbulb salesman (no, we didn't know there was such a thing either), a zumba teacher, an artist and the world's least-convincing 'ladies man'– a cross between Family Guy's Quagmire and Timmy?Mallett.

Four further programmes will be screened each night this week, with the winner of the fabled '£1,000 prize' being revealed on Friday at 5.30pm to much 'ooo-ing and ahh-ing'.

The show featured a dinner party hosted by 37-year-old zumba teacher Zoe Bailey, of Shrewsbury who 'likes to be in control' and had her hair gelled so tightly to the side of her head that it looked like it was painted on.

She was joined by eccentric artist Penny Timmis, badly-dressed manchild Josh Sedgeley, travelling LED light salesman Richard Mercer and BBC Radio Shropshire DJ Paul 'Shuttsie' Shuttleworth.

The series was filmed during the first week of September last year – with contestants cooking up a taste of the county.

Last night's programme followed Zoe as she cooked a three-course supper and her four guests were invited to comment.

She started her party with a twice-based cheese soufflé that was well-received by her invitees – though Penny was disappointed that Zoe had put the cutlery in the wrong position.

Oh, the drama.

Penny told the party that she was surprised nobody had heard of her because she considered herself one of Shropshire's best artists, while Richard and Paul both faced mild rebuke after talking for too long about their respective jobs.

There was also a 'heated', well lukewarm, debate as guests discussed the pronunciation of Shrewsbury – with Josh describing himself as common because he favoured the popular 'Shrews'bury version, while Penny saying 'Shrows'bury had more class.

Seriously, can there be a more formulaic or boring dinner table topic in the county? (It's Shrewsbury. As in The Shrews. Everyone knows that.)

There was 'fun and games' as Zoe introduced a 'song gargling' competition, asking guests to sing a song while gargling water.

Paul's attempt led to 'disaster' when he attempted to gargle but ended up spitting on the table.

It was the kind of stuff that probably goes on at every CDWM, but gets edited out for more interesting material.

It wasn't even 'so bad it's good' territory. Just bland and undercooked all the way through.

Zzzzzzoe's dessert proved a hit as she served a fruity cheesecake pudding that wowed her guests.

She scored a nine from Penny, an eight from Richard, an eight from Paul and a nine from Josh, who described her as being 'very good looking'.

Tonight's programme is hosted by Penny, in which there is hair in the butter dish and litter in the lamb.

Things can only get better.

Andy Richardson

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