Clearly, it has been a recipe for success as Come Dine With Me will celebrate its 20th anniversary this week. And Dave Lamb has been there to witness every tantrum, tiff and tiramisu.
The voiceover man for the Channel 4 dinner party show has given us hilarious commentary on the diners, dishes and dramas for the past two decades. Yet comedian and actor Dave has revealed that he doesn’t cook at home. He says: “I don’t hold dinner parties at all. My wife is a tremendous chef for one thing, but the notion of me cooking for people I find absolutely terrifying.”
However, such is his popularity that he has been offered huge sums to attend private dinner parties and provide witty narration about what’s going on. But he refuses, explaining: “People don’t realise the amount of time and effort that goes into creating that voiceover script for the show by people other than me, and then getting the nuance of it.
“To try and do it live on the spot would be so appallingly embarrassing and awkward that there’s no way I’m ever going to consider that.”
Over the years, viewers have seen many memorable moments on the show, which are bound to happen when you throw five strangers together to cook for, entertain and then judge one another. Classic episodes have included the pet owner who got out her snake on the dinner table and it pooed, the woman who got too tipsy and went to bed so another guest had to cook the meal, ‘Dazza’ Dowling’s deep-fried lasagna, and the fella whose party trick was sticking a whisk in his mouth.
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Daily Mirror)Dave says: “The snake that pooed on the table is probably one of the worst things I’ve seen. But to be honest, they do all blend into one after 20 years. There are times I think ‘nothing else can surprise me’ and then something else comes up.”
Dave salutes all the diners who sign up and claims he cannot believe how unfazed they seem by the cameras. He says: “If it was me, I’d be very self-conscious. But what’s brilliant about the people who come on the show is they seem to just take it all in their stride and I’m always very impressed.
“You can’t be shy on a show like that. A lot of them have never been on television before and so it’s kind of remarkable how brilliant they all are.”
Dave, 55, originally thought his career would be in comedy and acting before Channel 4 came knocking
on his door. He had appeared in shows such as Armstrong and Miller, Goodness Gracious Me and Horrible Histories, and had even been on stage with comedy greats Eric Sykes and Russ Abbot. And he hoped that he might land his own sitcom.
But he now realises he was destined to be a commentator because as a child growing up in London, he would love listening to popular sports commentators such as Tony Gubba, John Motson and David Coleman.
He says: “I got it from a very young age, I would commentate on my own life but as I was wandering around, you know, kind of pushing toy cars around my house when I was about four or five.
“I was really into football and I watched football matches and Match of the Day and things like that, and the commentators’ voices taught me how to speak in many ways, I think.
“I have always had this commentary going inside my head a lot of the time so, in a way, doing Come Dine With Me is just like coming home. It’s a very natural thing for me to do.”
When approached to narrate a show where strangers hold dinner parties and then score one another’s efforts, he thought he would give it a go but did not expect it to last.
But its success was such that celebrities have even been drawn in.
Star-studded 2010 editions featured Jan Leeming, Donal MacIntyre, Dave ‘Keith’ Spinx and Javine; and Tom O’Connor, Darren Day, Kim Woodburn and Claire Sweeney. Dave says: “It was initially just a daytime food programme that I was going to do five episodes of and then I just assumed it wouldn’t happen any more after that. And it’s just rolled on and on since then. It’s like non-stop. It’s like up there with Strictly and I’m a Celebrity. It’s kind of a permanent fixture, isn’t it?”
Dave credits his success with the fact that he pokes fun but is never nasty. He says: “I’m always keen that everyone has a nice time because I imagine them sitting around watching it with their families and how horrific that would be if the show was nasty.”
Come Dine With Me has proved so successful that the format has been used in Australia, America, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece, Sweden and Turkey. Dave has also narrated the Irish and South African editions.
Asked if he could see us all celebrating Come Dine With Me in another 20 years, he says: “I hope that it can carry on going because I think it’s a daytime show of rare quality. I’m just really privileged to be a part of it.”
COME DINE WITH ME FACTS
- In total there have been 2,426 episodes broadcast on C4/E4 since starting on January 10, 2004.
- And there have been episodes with 250 couples, 101 celebrities, 14 Christmas Specials.
- A whopping 10,665 meals have been cooked over the years.
- Among the strangest dishes served up on the show were sausage trifle, bacon roll poly with cheese custard, squirrel pate, Irn Bru soup, roadkill platter and Yorkshire pudding with rabbits tails.
- The most common things on the menu were cheesecake, potato dauphinoise, chicken wrapped in Parma ham, Eton Mess, garlic prawns, Scotch egg, crème brûlée and every type of curry and pasta you can think of.
- Camera crews have filmed in 10,604 individual locations. Every letter of the alphabet has been visited in the UK (from Aberdeen to Yorkshire) apart from Q, U, X and Z.
* A new series of Come Dine With Me starts later this month on Channel 4 and E4.
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