A gleeful satire which takes potshots at celebrity chefs as well as the snobbish upper-class, the only flaw Posh Nosh has is its unfortunately short running time.Richard E Grant is once again the sneering, superior toff, a role he does exceptionally well, while Arabella Weir's Minty tries to maintain the same nose-in-the-air attitude, ('Lard makes me think of fat people in the co-op - perhaps you're one of them'), but occasionally lets her middle-class roots show.Highlights include David Tennant's cameos as the object of Simon's not-so-discreet affection, as well as Simon's drunken tirade on the disregard of sauces.

When I checked my TV guide for tonight there were at least four cooking programmes, two of them back to back. After watching Posh Nosh one feels freed from the intestinal distress caused by this oversupply of culinary "experts" for ever. No more Delia, Nigella, Jamie, Gordon Ramsey, the Two Fat Ladies, Iain Hewitson, Maggie Beer et al.Simon & Minty are hilarious as they disturb,distress & interrogate their ingredients; teaching us very little about cooking but a great deal about their marriage. As the series progresses, the subtlety with which their desperate disfunctionality is revealed is of the type that can only be achieved by the British.SPOILERS SPOILERSLower middle-class Minty, hoping to climb the social ladder by marrying into the Marchmont family, but whose every utterance discloses her background is complemented beautifully by "born to the aristocracy" Simon, who undercuts her with his withering sarcasm at every turn. Simon's motive for marrying Minty is a little less clear - possibly to deflect attention from his relationship with his dog and his tanned tennis coach Jose-Luis, and to acquire a wife prepared to be chained to his beloved mother's Aga forever.The accuracy of the satire is increased by the promotion of the compulsory range of Posh Nosh "products". There is also an actual website where one can obtain every recipe used in the programme.Writer Arabella Weir and Richard E. Grant are perfect in the roles of this couple, who delineate fine social distinctions through the use of cuisine.This show will leave you laughing helplessly. A gem. And please, why only one series? Like all good food, Posh Nosh cries out for seconds and even thirds.

The perfect antidote to the avalanche of cookery programs - most of which try too hard to impress, rather than to entertain or inform.Posh Nosh is almost entirely about attributing social status value to the preparation, presentation and consumption of food. However, we are also allowed a window to the private lives of these two fictional eccentrics.Simon may be an arrogant pig, but Minty so values her stylish life as his partner that she chooses to ignore his all-too-apparent extra-marital appetite.Posh Nosh is the most stylishly delivered and rewarding of very British humour, packed into 9 exquisite ten minute morsels.Endlessly re-watchable and a joy to be shared proudly with family and friends.

Welcome to the ancestral home of the Marchmonts - Simon and Minty are passionate about all things to do with food, particularly about how you, the viewer who is in desperate need of some high culture, are going to be making and, thought it could be sacrilege, consuming such creations as are brought lovingly to life on this show.Forget Jamie Oliver, forget Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith, this is a cooking show that is at the very top of the food chain.(And forget living without fennel - it's the new revolution in cooking, and a trademark of the Marchmonts' restaurant, The Quill And Tassel in Bray, England. Make sure you try the Bread AND Butter Pudding with shaved fennel while you're there.)Simon and Minty are the to-the-manor-born hosts of the show. While Minty (Arabella Weir) gives us cooking tips (exasperate your vegetables until exhausted; disturb your chestnuts in milk until queasy, then disappoint), Simon (Richard E. Grant) teaches those of us with ordinary tastebuds the finer points of wine selection and consumption.This show is well written (with Arabella Weir being involved in that writing) - its satire of the cooking shows which now saturate our screens is a welcome change from being told that all these years we've been boiling those eggs all wrong. Chris Langham's directing style can be seen by those familiar with series such as "People Like Us". It's mockumentary style makes the irony behind the dialogue between the show's hosts all that more enjoyable.The two hosts turn in great performances: Minty is a fallen domestic goddess, somewhere between Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith, who's marriage to Simon seems to have come about because Minty wanted a title and Simon wanted to get marriage out of the way so he could continue his tennis lessons with his strapping spanish male tennis coach. Arabella Weir is delightful as Minty and Richard E. Grant turns in another quality performance of eccentric English aristocratic snobbery.I've given the show a good rating so far but I'm sure there will be those who disagree. What I say is this: watch for yourself, and if you don't get at least a laugh out of one short and insane episode, check your pulse and go take some lessons in the British sense of irony.