Shropshire Magazine

Margo’s dinner parties would have been strictly policed - but with Tom Good about the descent into chaos could never be far away.

In which Vanessa breathes a sigh of relief at the modern trend for informal entertaining . . .

Vanessa Lloyd-Thomas

Colleagues at the office have been watching Come Dine With Me for years, but it is only recently I’ve begun to tune in.

It’s a completely bizarre mix of delusional people who think they can cook but can’t, thrown together for a sort of car-crash TV.

They all visit each others’ homes, taking turns to cook and nose around, and at the end of the week one person wins £1,000. That’s usually the person who has burned the least and grovelled the most.

It reminds me of the cringingly bad dinner parties we all used to throw 20 years ago, following in the footsteps of our mothers and, although we would never have admitted it, Margot Lead­better from The Good Life.

We all tried so hard to cook restaurant-quality meals, and aspired to formal table settings, white china crockery, silver cutlery, crystal glasses, cloth napkins and ‘grown up’ chatter.

Mine always fell far short of the ideal – usually because Delia’s ‘simple’ chocolate torte refused to set, guests drank too much sherry, wine and port, and got tearful or argued, and children who were supposed to be asleep came to join the party.

How much more enjoyable life is in the 21st century where we can invite friends around and not feel obliged to stand on ceremony. We can slosh alcohol into whatever glasses we can find (the bigger the better), serve Pringles from the tube with supermarket dips and all sit down at the kitchen table to pot-luck suppers or even takeaways, kids included.

Next thing you know we’ll be shopping for the food in our pyjamas – Oops forgot, they already do in Cardiff . . . [Editor’s note: A Cardiff woman had recently been refused service at a branch Tesco, because she was wearing pyjamas. She said she had been “popping in for a pack of fags”, but if she had been doing a full shop” then we obviously would have gone in clothed”.]

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The Lloyd-Thomas family is travelling the UK at the moment staying in budget hotels and visiting universities that are willing to take oldest son this autumn if he gets the necessary grades.

It is, of course, a difficult decision for Tom – but also for yours truly. How can one choose between Aberystwyth, with its potential for walks on the beach, and Bristol and Bath, with their superb shopping?

As Tom says, that’s irrelevant because I won’t be visiting anyway! Just wait until that student loan runs out . . .

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Breakfasting late, I stumbled across a radio discussion on the increasing number of men who are deceiving their wives by taking Viagra in secret.

The key question, apparently, was whether women would realise that their hubbies had popped the pills.

Surely a refund would be in order if they didn’t!