A show that first aired back in 2005 and now has more series aired than we care to count. A show with some of the quirkiest ‘characters’ to grace our television screens, a voice-over presenter armed with a never-ending list of witty comments and comebacks, and a theme song that builds tension like no other.
It’s a real pillar of British 00s TV viewing and it needs celebrating.
Now, you might be thinking that a countdown list of the most hilarious Come Dine With Me moments has essentially been rendered pointless at this point thanks to everyone’s favourite, and objectively one of the best TV meltdowns of all time – “What a sad little life Jane” – but there’s plenty of other noteworthy moments, that are equally as iconic in their own right, which often get overlooked.
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Let’s take a look back at a few of these more underrated, but no less iconic, Come Dine With Me moments.
Narrowing it down to just five moments was a pretty tricky task as well, considering it’s been on air for 15 years after all, but we’ve plucked out a few gems.
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5. Tina Get’s Exposed
“So tell me about the flatbreads Tina”.
There certainly hasn’t been a shortage of people who have pretended to cook all of their meals from scratch on Come Dine With Me when, in reality, they’ve substituted a few shop-bought items in there, but Tina thought she could finesse a whole shop-bought meal and blame it on the fact she injured her foot.
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Spoiler alert – she get’s found out and it’s excellent.
4. Tina’s Had Enough
Yes, we’re back to Tina.
Tina’s the Come Dine With Me gift that keeps on giving, and whilst it might seem a bit much to award her two spots on this list, she does deserve it. This time she’s not having it and storms out of the room after Reece (it wasn’t even Recce who did it by the way) makes a joke at her expense that she’s not too happy with and it’s just underrated TV gold.
3. The Sore Loser
Think of this as the sister meltdown to “What a sad little life Jane”.
We bet a good number of people who appear on Come Dine With Me probably think their meals have been the best that week, but most just know how to bite their tongue and let it slide if they don’t come out on top.
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Not Heather though.
2. That ‘Whisk Guy’
You really shouldn’t need more than that to jog your memory of what we’re on about here.
Still to this day, we have no idea whether this is a genuine moment.
Did he really mean to stick the whole whisk in his mouth like that? Is that really how he ‘tastes’ his cooking? He can’t be serious, right? Or is he just purposefully trying to trigger everyone?
Look, if he was aiming to be remembered as one of the strangest blokes to ever appear on Come Dine With Me, then he’s undoubtedly succeeded.
To top our list of hilarious Come Dine With Me moments, we’re taking it back to 2017 when poor Hali gloriously went, and there’s no other way to describe this, arse over tit as she made her way to one of the week’s dinner parties.
Curb 1 – Hali 0.
We know people falling over is pretty cheap comedy, but there’s no denying it’s funny. She went on to completely style it out and rock up like nothing ever happened too, if you were wondering.
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So, there you have it.
Thank you Come Dine With Me for never failing to give us a chuckle when we need it, and just in case you clicked on this article hoping to see “What a sad little life Jane”, then it’d be wrong for us to deprive you of it.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Shepherd’s pie named among classic British dishes that could be ‘extinct’ within the next decade
Emily Sergeant
Shepherd’s pie has been named among the classic British dishes that could be ‘extinct’ within the next 10 years.
From a hearty roast dinner on a Sunday, to a slap-up full English breakfast to start the day, classic British dishes have become staples on dinner tables across the nation, all known and loved for their comforting flavours and cultural significance… but apparently, Google searches for ‘shepherd’s pie recipe’ are down 55% in the past year, indicating that less and less people looking to create this traditional dish at home.
So with this in mind, air fryer giants Ninja Kitchen decided to carry out a new study by surveying 2,000 people and studying search trends for popular British dishes to uncover which meals are still loved, and which might be nothing more than a distant memory.
Shockingly, the new study revealed that shepherd’s pie could be facing extinction from early as 2027, with several other favourites dying out within a decade.
Shepherd’s pie takes the fifth spot on the top 10 list, as according to the study, the dish is experiencing a 0.76% weekly decline, and due to the fact only 5% of Brits would name it a ‘favourite’, this classic risks extinction by 2027.
Shepherd’s pie has been named among the classic British dishes that could be ‘extinct’ within the next decade / Credit: Dennis J Wilkinson | Steven Depolo
Another shocker on the list has to been the beloved veggie dish cheese and onion pie, which takes the ninth spot thanks to its 0.41% weekly decline in searches.
However, the majority of the other dishes making up the top 10 list tend to be regional delicacies or dishes that are popular within certain dietary preferences, such as Glamorgan sausage – which takes the number one spot, with a 2% weekly search decline – Tatws Pum Munud, a nut roast, and a vegan roast dinner.
57% of the nation would be sad to see British staples fade away, according to the study, but 31% do appreciate the evolution of food trends.
The study also revealed that the growing popularity of takeaway and convenience food is the leading reason why people are moving away from traditional classics such as shepherd’s pie, with nearly half (46%) of respondents citing it as their main reason.