COME DINE WITH ME now occupies a large slice of Channel 4's daytime schedule, with episodes running at lunchtime, late afternoon and most of Saturday afternoon. Channel 4's sister station More4 runs more episodes in the early evening. Watching several episodes back to back allows certain themes to emerge: the food selection by each contestant is often repetitive; the contestants have entrenched attitudes; their judgments are affected very much by the desire to win the competition; and all of them are more than ready to act in front of the ubiquitous television camera. Dave Lamb's narration contributes to the overall jokey atmosphere, as he makes fun of the contestants' pretensions. From a sociological perspective, however, COME DINE WITH ME is a fascinating text, as it encapsulates within each twenty-five-minute episode the enduring class, gender and age prejudices of most of the contestants. Anyone who thinks that contemporary Britain has changed in terms of its social structure, as compared with, say, half a century ago, would have their assumptions readily undermined here. Snobberies, racial prejudices, and gender jealousies still exist, even if they are perhaps more politely expressed than they might have once been.
