Topjaw aren’t quite the same in real life, without the edits. The duo — presenter Jesse Burgess, producer Will Warr; both handsome, both well-spoken — are known for the waggish production on their 90-second food quiz videos with chefs and celebrities, in which they ask guests about their favourite pizza or curry, their must-eats, places they think are overrated. So when Grace Dent jokes that she likes to eat away from the riff-raff, a snippet of Mozart plays. When Gordon Ramsay is rude, flames appear. When Ncuti Gatwa is pushed to make up his mind, the Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s final answer synth blares. It’s pop art’s crash-bang-kaboom for the social media generation.
As such, when Burgess describes the email that came in offering Marcus Wareing for interview and says, “My arsehole dilated, I was so excited”, one half expects screeching brakes, the face of a crying child to appear, a suggestive mud pit to flash into focus. What you don’t necessarily anticipate is a Henry Hoover wailing as an indifferent cleaner prepares the empty pub for the day.
