The film is quite good. However, if Nigel is this big of a c*** in real life, I wish him nothing but the most tortuous suffering he deserves. Horrible human.

I like this film....it's so refreshingly funny......this film was based on the food writer, Nigel SlaterMy only complaint is that Nigel Slater (played by Oscar Kennedy as young Nigel and Freddie Highmore as teenager Nigel) is such a bratty snob who looks down on his stepmother Joan Potter (played marvelously by Helena Bonham Carter) as a lowly cleanerHe should have given her a chance....... for in the beginning of the movie she is kind to him but the latter keeps on rejecting her so Joan develops animosity towards Nigel (with good reason) and instead of kindly asking Joan (who is a superb cook) the recipe for the Lemon Meringue, he secretly spies on her when she's preparing and baking the pie.......It doesn't say in the film that Joan is only after Nigel's father's money so why downright rude to her????????Entire cast is great

The movie left me wondering who boils still sealed canned food? So I decided to read Nigel Slater's autobiography of the same name and I got my answer: No one. While his mother wasn't a keen cook and baked a Christmas cake that could anchor the Queen Mary, not once did I read that she prepared canned food that way or that she mistrusted anything unprocessed. While they did eat plenty of convenience foods, they mostly ate poorly cooked real food. Also, it was his father's idea to cook spaghetti bolognese, in fact he prepared it himself and it was Nigel who said the Parmesan cheese smelled of sick. These are only a few examples just from the beginning of the movie of the many things that where changed, exaggerated, or condensed from the book to fit a 1 1/2 hour TV movie script. Despite the many differences I found once reading the book, I did enjoy the movie which was quirky and well acted.

Good performance by H.B.C and Ken Stott and quite good for the 1960s portrayal but sadly it just shown Nigel Slater as a very self centred person and a spoilt brat.The kind of person no one likes.Why would you want to be seen like that unless you actually were. Do not really see the point of the film.What had the stepmother done to deserve such treatment? Why was Nigel such a brat? What happens to the stepmother? Maybe more relevant facts should have been accounted for. His school days and education were barely touched as were his teenage years.The film ends with a job at the Savoy and the viewer is left to decide what then happens.I just do not see what Nigel Slater was hoping to get across.