Cookery shows are the most fake programmes on TV, and Christmas cookery programmes are usually even worse: presenters put on jazzy jumpers to sit around a table with “friends” they don’t know in a house that isn’t theirs, eating food they didn’t cook and reciting platitudes they didn’t write about what Christmas means to them, in scenes that were filmed in August. Humbug!
The Hairy Bikers: Coming Home for Christmas is not one of those shows. Because of the presenters’ personal circumstances, and because the Hairy Bikers have always seemed a lot more real than their TV-chef rivals, their festive special really is what other Christmas culinary programmes only pretend to be: a warming, moving celebration of friends, family and food, giving thanks for another year survived.
