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.
The cheapest Christmas Markets in the world for mulled wine have been revealed
Daisy Jackson
The most affordable Christmas Markets for drinking mulled wine have been revealed – and Manchester is nowhere in sight.
With Christmas markets across Europe preparing to welcome millions of visitors, festive fans looking to enjoy a warming cup of glühwein without breaking the bank might want to take note of the latest findings.
Festive experts at Christmas Tree World have analysed mulled wine prices at Christmas markets around the world to discover where visitors can enjoy the seasonal favourite for less.
Topping the rankings is Brussels’ Winter Wonders, where mulled wine is available for as little as £2.14 – about a third of the price of a mulled wine at the Manchester Christmas Markets.
Cologne Cathedral Christmas Markets and Strasbourg’s Christkindelsmärik share second place, with starting prices of just £2.56.
Other European favourites also feature prominently in the rankings. Budapest’s Christmas Market at the Basilica takes fourth place, with mulled wine costing £3.19, while Prague’s Old Town Square Christmas Market comes in sixth at £3.55.
Germany makes another strong appearance, with Dresden’s Striezelmarkt and Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt (which handily just launched new direct flights from Manchester) both offering mulled wine for £3.85.
Meanwhile, Vienna’s Christmas World rounds off the European entries in ninth place, with prices starting at £4.28.
For those planning a festive adventure further afield, Tokyo’s Christmas Market also makes the top five, with mulled wine costing £3.22.
However, not every destination offers such a bargain. Across the Atlantic, New York City’s Winter Village takes the title of the most expensive market in the study, with mulled wine costing a rather less festive £11.74. Chicago’s Christkindlmarket isn’t far behind, charging £8.80.
Manchester Christmas Markets start on Friday 6 November – we’ll see how our prices stack up then.
Sir Ian McKellen pays emotional tribute to long-time friend and fellow northern actor Sir Patrick Stewart
Emily Sergeant
Sir Ian McKellen has paid an emotional tribute to his long-time friend and fellow northern actor, Sir Patrick Stewart, following his death.
Sir Patrick Stewart – who was born and bred in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, and is best-known for his theatre work alongside an illustrious 60-year screen career, taking on prominent roles in franchises such as Star Trek and X-Men – sadly passed away at the age of 86, with his death being announced publicly yesterday evening (29 October).
And now, his long-time friend and fellow northern actor, Sir Ian McKellen, has paid tribute.
Sir Patrick and Sir Ian shared the stage together countless times over their decades-long careers, but also famously starred alongside each other in the X-Men franchise, and subsequent Marvel movies, as Charles Xavier/Professor X and Magneto.
The tribute, shared across Sir Ian’s social media platforms, reads: “Before everything else, Patrick was defined by being born and bred in Yorkshire, the proud county in the north of England which he loved to the end. You could hear it in his accented voice and in the stern honesty with which he told you what he thought and felt. Yorkshiremen have no truck with half-truths or avoidance of big issues. He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love.
“We first met as ambitious young actors with the Royal Shakespeare Company half a century ago but we weren’t in the same productions.
“My first strong memory was a few years later, meeting him in the street in central London when he told me about an offer to take over a leading part in ‘Star Trek’. “But Patrick think of your stage career in the UK. Do you really want to risk getting lost in Hollywood for years and years?”
“Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did, for not just his devoted Trekkies, but film and theatre audiences who marvelled at his using international celebrity to star in a string of cinema successes (‘X-Men’ of course) and in great classical plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Peter Shaffer, Pinter and Beckett at Stratford-upon-Avon, in London’s West End and on Broadway.
“America was his adopted home, where he met his adored Sunny who has cared for him through sickness and health, through thick and thin.
“But he never forsook his origins: and the proudest achievement of the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic, was his appointment as Chancellor of Huddersfield University in Yorkshire.”
Emily Sergeant -
8th July 2020 
