Southend Pier is for many, synonymous with the end credits of 1980s TV classic Minder.
Sadly, all-round dodgy geezer Arthur Daley is long departed. But fear not, the pier is now home to a formidable partnership that would put Arthur and his sidekick Terry to shame, in the form of Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty.
Their show, Friday Night Feast (Channel 4, 20 January, 8pm) had it all. From Alesha Dixon’s spicy prawns, a cute dog hunting for truffles, and two blokes hooning around Southend in a milk float while listening to Salt-N-Pepa.
It’s a show that sticks to the tried and tested foodie TV format of recipes and a celeb appearance, capped off with a consumer campaign, and this week was no different as the duo switched their gaze onto that most topical of hot potatoes - free-range milk.
The pair visited Neil Darwent of the Pasture Promise scheme to hear how great free-range milk was, before taking the product for an impromptu (and completely unscripted) consumer taste test in Southend where they delighted shoppers and resolved to launch a campaign to get the milk sold more widely.
All good intentions, but non free-range farmers took to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the implicit criticism of their product. Jimmy proclaimed the campaign would be the start of a “big fight to help the dairy industry”, but with no clear plan on what they’ll do next and no major free-range listings in the mults, we might have to wait a bit longer for this particular dairy revolution.
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