Come Dine With Me: The Tasty Bits

Channel 4’s astoundingly popular Come Dine With Me is getting released on DVD for the first time in the build up to Christmas, with viewers being promised the most entertaining bits from various episodes, including the obligatory ‘Too Saucy For TV’ extras.

The main feature, compiled of the ‘the most outrageous behaviour’ from the show, soon loses any charm. First of all, Dave Lamb, the unmistakable star and voice of the show, has recorded an all new narration track to go with the footage. However, given the disjointed nature of the various assorted scenes, this is often limited to such insight as “and now here is so and so in such and such place” or “here is somebody else being drunk and rude.”

Herein lies the other inherent flaw of the release. The hilarity and entertainment value of the more peculiar behaviour of the contestants stems moreso from the context and the build-up of proceedings, rather than the insular actions themselves. Therefore cutting from one ‘outrageous’ scene to another soon becomes fairly tiresome and ultimately redundant. If the viewer was seeking a disc compiled of ‘outrageous behaviour’ for Christmas, one must question whether they would seek out something like Jackass, rather than the dinner party-based Come Dine With Me.

So it is up to the extra features to save the package, yet these are similarly disappointing and also, at times, a little confusing. Divided into ‘Celebrity Scenes’, ‘Too Saucy For TV’ and ‘Outrageous Out-takes’, the three features combined are not even the length of a normal episode of the show, and certainly possess none of the appeal or watchability (an unnecessary shot of hairy buttocks and naked genitals welcomes you into the ‘Saucy’ part of the disc.)

The entertaining low-key allure of the show has clearly been misconstrued by producers; and with the show itself repeated endlessly on Channel 4 and More4, one must wonder if a DVD was ever really needed in the first place.



Released on DVD on 1st November 2010 by ITV Studios Home Entertainment.

> Buy the DVD on Amazon.

Reviewed by Jared Carnie.