"Prison Would Be A Relief Right Now"

Almost at the halfway stage of Hell's Kitchen series 1 where in the middle of the first week there were two departures.
The first of which being athlete Dwain Chambers who found the pressure too much to take and decided to leave despite the fact that everyone thought he was getting better.

This resulted in a rather tearful farewell although it's understandable that Dwain was rather down as he wanted the experience to boost his confidence after his recent drug problems.

The other celebrity to leave but in a less heartfelt manner was Tommy Vance who had only been there for two days. I can remember him refusing to tell Gordon that he was leaving which resulted in this comment between him and Al Murray;

Al: "You're aware that he is a great chef"

Tommy: "And I'm a great DJ"

Tommy appeared on the following days show as one of those attending the restaurant where he admitted to Angus that he was a "lazy git" but came up with this rather unfortunate line;

Angus: "And what do you make of what you've eaten so far?"

Tommy: "Well I'm not dead yet"

It was interesting to see both Mark Curry and Yvette Fielding in the background during one of Angus's links in what could have possibly been their first appearance together in 15 years after Mark left Blue Peter.

I'm not sure how well Yvette would have done as one of those in the kitchen itself if the pancake incident in 1988 was anything to go by. That resulted in the classic line "Mark, I think I've joined your club!"

Despite the departures things seemed to be improving and by the Wednesday they were able to provide a full service with the majority of the meals meeting Gordon's standards.

To add more pressure there had been visits by the food critics of both the Observer and The Times, with the critic from the times complaining that his risotto was too salty whereas Gordon, and fellow head chef Angela Hartnett saw nothing wrong with it at all.

The funniest part came when alleged comedian Prick Reeves was present along with his lovely wife Nancy and asked Jean Phillipe if they could make him a fried egg.

Gordon wasn't impressed and said to the maitre d' "I'm not here, sweating my bollocks off to cook some dickhead a fried egg" .

He then asked Jean Phillipe to bring the customer over and Reeves was subjected to a tounge lashing where Gordon quite rightly called him a "fucking twat".

Couldn't have put it better myself.

It's worth mentioning that during the first series they tended to stop bleeping out the fucks halfway through the show although when it returns for series 4 in a few weeks there may not be any at all judging by ITV's standards.

Although in one episode there were 4 utterances of "shit" from Gordon in 30 seconds and when said in an angry manner I can understand why it could be shocking.

Although in my case I find it rather amusing.

One part that I picked up on was when the chefs were relaxing in the upstairs lounge, Amanda Barrie brought up the issue of when Gordon bollocked Abi Titmuss for laughing during a crucial part of the service and that if Gordon ever spoke to her like that she would be furious.

We got to see Amanda's attitude in the flesh later in the series providing one of the many memorable moments.

Having watched back through the series, I can possibly suggest that Claudia Winkleman will be no patch on Angus Deayton as the presenter although she's no where near as bad as other presenters on television and it's evident she has a sense of humour as seen on shows such as 8 Out Of 10 Cats.