"It's just like our school days..." says Jamie Oliver of his latest TV series, Jamie and Jimmy's Food Fight Club.
Well, yes, if your school playground had people like Alan Carr, Gary Barlow and - yes! - Gwyneth Paltrow dropping into the tuck shop for a sarnie.
For Jimmy and Jamie, it's just like school, with a film crew on hand
This programme was a bit of a casserole of leftovers from other shows, as Jamie went through the pantomime of opening a cafe at the end of Southend Pier with his old pal - sorry, mucker - Jimmy, then disappearing off in the dust of a Capri (of course) to sniff around French cheeses and other European culinary counterparts, stopping to make a landing reminiscent of D-Day but with dubious jokes about baguettes, and then heading back home to force Alan Carr onto a roller coaster with loose food in his hand and, well, you know the rest...
The sight of Carr's spectacles taped to his head and his squeals as he got squelched were great televisual delights, but he's got his own show for that. For the rest, a lot depends on whether you have yet tired of the singular charms of Jamie Oliver.
Jamie and Jimmy ventured away from their pier cafe for a sniff at other cultures
There is no doubt that this tireless young man has been a force for good in many fields, and deserves his fun after his many campaigns. However, I couldn't help but cringe at the splitting of the atom between all these telly ingredients, the shoehorning of his A-list pals into his Essex roots, and hanker for the days when he really indulged his love for European food, and went wandering off to Italy with only a film crew for company.