Nobody likes nepotism. So there’s a special joy in seeing celebrity offspring suck. Take David Beckham’s son Brooklyn and his widely skewered photography book (his latest passion is food and his social media cooking posts have been similarly slagged off). Or Kim Kardashian’s and Kanye West’s kid North, who clearly didn’t get the lead in a recent The Lion King concert based on talent.
Rather annoyingly, the same can’t be said for Buddy Oliver – 13-year-old son of Jamie and Jules – who has secured a 10-part cookery series Cooking Buddies (CBBC, on demand). Clearly having a telly chef legend for a dad helped – but he’s actually really good at it.
Each episode sees Buddy and various young guests swap skills: him showing them how to make simple meals and they showing him how to box, ice skate, salsa dance etc. In the first he made a fish finger sandwich and sweet potato fries for boxing pal Jackson.
Jamie couldn’t resist poking his head round the door. “Are you going to season them up?” Oliver senior asked of son’s crinkle-cut chips. “Smoked paprika,” Buddy responded. “Very nice, very nice,” Jamie said, as coolly as he could, beaming with fatherly pride.
“Sorry about him, he’s so embarrassing,” Buddy told Jackson.
Another of Jamie’s brood does let the show down somewhat: family dog Conker. The pooch can talk – overdubbed by a presumably human voiceover actor – but added nothing. Liking cheese seems the full extent of his character.
Overall though, an irritatingly sound effort from Jamie junior.
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