fri 13/12/2024

Toast, BBC One | reviews, news & interviews

Toast, BBC One

Toast, BBC One

Chef's TV autobiog is warm and buttery, but without crunch

Nigel Slater (Freddie Highmore) displays that Sixties delight, shepherd's pieBBC/Ruby Films/Susie Allnutt

All the time I was watching Toast last night, based on Nigel Slater’s memoir of his early years, I was wondering whether it was filmed for the benefit of the audience or of Slater himself. The final scene (no spoiler – we know how this story ends) where the young Slater ran away to join the kitchen at the Savoy was revealing: the head chef who gave him a job was played by Nigel Slater, reassuring his younger self that “you’ll be all right”. This felt more like therapy than drama.

All the time I was watching Toast last night, based on Nigel Slater’s memoir of his early years, I was wondering whether it was filmed for the benefit of the audience or of Slater himself. The final scene (no spoiler – we know how this story ends) where the young Slater ran away to join the kitchen at the Savoy was revealing: the head chef who gave him a job was played by Nigel Slater, reassuring his younger self that “you’ll be all right”. This felt more like therapy than drama.

Stott’s girth expanded ceaselessly, yet he kept his emotional expressions tight, hardly moving beyond yelling at Nigel

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Comments

An overcooked meat & two veg' of a review review.... .You've missunderstood the meaning of "expiation" .Her fine cookery was originaly the only thing he liked about Ms Potter .How did his mother "betray" him? Dissapoint and upset yes, but "betray"? .You come dangerously close to misunderstanding metaphor. ."Unoriginal"....eh, it's a biographical piece.

Having devoured the book over Chrsitmas and thoroughly enoyed it,I was bitterly dissappointed in the television adaptation. So many important points were omitted. The Mother didn't even burn the toast. No rounded description of the food - no mention of sherbet fountains and Angel Delight. I wish I had never watched it - my enjoyment in the book was completely spoilt.

Loved it, but Helena Bonham Carter's accent was aaaaawwwwffffuuuullll. She sounded Australian for half of it.

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