A new spin-off series of Come Dine With Me is on the hunt for chefs and restaurateurs in Greater Manchester.
Come Dine With Me: The Professionals is a new twist on the classic daytime reality show.
It will see hospitality professionals, rather than amateur home cooks, battle it out to be crowned the best independent restaurant in their city.
Each self-contained episode will feature three local restaurants competing for a cash prize to be shared amongst the staff.
Due to air later this year, the programme will be formatted in a similar way to Four In A Bed, with two people from each restaurant representing the whole business.
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The hit show is on the hunt for restaurants. Credit: Channel 4
The competitors will dine in each other’s restaurants during a normal service and mark their experience out of 20.
Come Dine With Me: The Professionals will still be narrated by the iconic voice of Dave Lamb.
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Simone Haywood from MultiStory Media, which produces the show, said: “Come Dine With Me: The Professionals pays homage to one of the nation’s most-loved industries.
“We’re looking forward to heading across the country to meet some of the UK’s best restaurateurs and chefs in this new twist on our classic format.”
Come Dine With Me. Credit: Multi Story Media
MultiStory Media’s CEO Tim Carter said: “For 15 glorious years, we’ve been celebrating the culinary creations and epic fails that pour forth from the Nation’s home kitchens.
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“Now, as they recover from the battering of the last couple of years, Come Dine With Me cheers on Britain’s restaurants with its customary love note to gastronomic endeavour.”
Channel 4’s Jo Street added: “Come Dine With Me continues to be one of Channel 4’s best loved programmes with many memorable dinners served all over the UK in over 2,000 episodes.
“CDWM: The Professionals promises to really raise the stakes and we’re delighted to dish up this new extension on Channel 4 in 2022 to complement existing favourites Come Dine With Me and Couples Come Dine With Me.”
If you own or work in a Greater Manchester restaurant that would like to take part in Come Dine With Me: The Professionals, email [email protected].
Featured image: Channel 4
TV & Showbiz
Channel 4 is looking for Mancs who think they can survive the apocalypse for a new TV series
Lydia Mastrolonardo
Have you always wanted to see how long you’d last in an apocalypse?
Well now’s your chance, as Apocalypse is potentially coming back to Channel 4 for a second series, with producers having put out a nationwide casting call for contestants willing to take part.
The casting call simply reads: “Do you think you have what it takes to survive the end of the world?”
Described as a dystopian series designed to test the creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience of our nation, Apocalypse sees players are pushed out of their comfort zones and put to the ultimate test.
In the series, ordinary people are tasked with surviving for 28 days in an abandoned city – used previously only for the military to practice urban warfare – with no food, running water, electricity or heat.
Produced by The Garden – which is part of ITV Studios – for Channel 4, the show’s creators are now calling on Mancs and people up and down the country with the ‘courage and ingenuity’ to compete, to get in touch and apply for the potential second series.
Does your mate always bang on after watching a post-apocalyptic film that they would’ve done things differently? Or is the news at the moment freaking you out and you want to give the end of the world a bit of a practice run? Either way, sign up, test that plan you’ve built in your head, and see if you’ve really got what it takes.
Applications are now open, and all you need to do is fill in a short application form and one of the production team will get back to you if they would like to proceed. Come on, let’s prove what Mancs are made of.
Iconic Manc movie 24 Hour Party People is set to return to cinemas for its anniversary
Emily Sergeant
One of Manchester’s most iconic movies is set to return to the big screen next month.
Remastered in 4K and returning to UK cinemas to mark 24 years since its original release, Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 biographical comedy drama film, 24 Hour Party People, tells the story of Manchester‘s popular music community from 1976 to 1992 – specifically about Factory Records‘ founder Tony Wilson.
The film begins with the punk rock era of the late 1970s, before moving through the 1980s into the rave and DJ culture, and of course, the ‘Madchester‘ scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The narrative largely follows the career of Tony Wilson, played by Middleton-born actor Steve Coogan, while also covering the careers of the major Factory Records artists – especially Joy Division and New Order, as well as A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and Happy Mondays.
If you haven’t seen 24 Hour Party People before, it’s a dramatisation based on a combination of real events, rumours, and urban legends, as the film is sure to make clear.
Coogan is joined by a cast by a mixture of big names and, at the time, rising stars like Paddy Considine, Shirley Henderson, Lennie James, John Simm, Ralf Little, Andy Serkis, Sean Harris, John Thomson, and even Peter Kay, alongside cameos from other figures connected to the Manchester music scene.
Before it returns to cinemas, the film will first open music and media festival/conference, Beyond The Music, at MediaCity in Salford on 6 October.
The screening at the festival will also be followed by a Q&A with Coogan, Winterbottom, and producer Andrew Eaton.
24 Hour Party People will then be re-released in UK cinemas from 9 October, and you can check your local cinema for screening times and book tickets online now.
Daisy Jackson -
20th January 2022 
