''Light Lunch'' (later ''Late Lunch'') was a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

lunch-time comedy chatshow broadcast on weekdays at 12:30pm between 24 March 1997 and 27 February 1998, which was moved to weeknights at 6:00pm between 31 March 1998 and 5 March 1999. It was hosted by Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, also known as

Mel and Sue Mel Giedroyc (born 5 June 1968) and Sue Perkins (born 22 September 1969), known collectively as Mel and Sue, are an English comedy double act. They are known for hosting the BAFTA Award-winning BBC One cookery series '' The Great British ...

, who started their comedy careers at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

club. The show was a huge success initially, but audience figures declined slowly.

Format

The show was structured around the making and eating of a luncheon. The main part of the meal would be prepared by a guest chef, with either Giedroyc or Perkins talking to the chef during the demonstration. Once the meal was ready, it was eaten by Giedroyc, Perkins and two celebrity guests, during which an interview would take place. In the final part of the programme, a third celebrity guest brought in dessert, and a further period of interviewing would occur on the sofa, which would include

phone-in In broadcasting, a phone-in or call-in is a programme format in which viewers or listeners are invited to air their live comments by telephone, usually in respect of a specific topic selected for discussion on the day of the broadcast. On radio ( ...

questions from viewers. The studio audience were also expected to bring in their own lunch to eat during the show, and were each given £3 to cover the cost of this. They were encouraged to bring in unusual food, their own creations, or food in some way relating to that day's celebrity guest, and the most creative ideas would be shown on camera.

''Late Lunch''

As a result of declining viewing figures and because of a general change in viewer demographics in the UK, ''Light Lunch'' was moved to a 6:00pm time slot in March 1998 and rebranded as ''Late Lunch''. It ran in that slot for nearly a year before being cancelled in 1999. Between 1998 and 1999, Late Lunch was repeated on a weekend as part of Channel 4's T4 strand.

Band

The show's house band (introduced individually as "Steve, Matt, Dylan and Dan" and collectively by numerous different names, mostly food puns) included

Dylan Howe Dylan Lee Howe (born 4 August 1969) is an English drummer, bandleader, session musician and composer. The son of guitarist Steve Howe (musician), Steve Howe with whom he has sometimes collaborated, Dylan is also noted for his work with rock ba ...

on drums.

Broadcast

References

External links

* * 1997 British television series debuts 1999 British television series endings 1990s British comedy television series 1990s British television talk shows Channel 4 talk shows British English-language television shows Television series by Banijay {{UK-comedy-tv-prog-stub